The Sea and the Land: Mendelssohn, Elgar & Dvořák

Programme

John Eliot Gardiner takes the helm for a journey from a windswept Scottish island to the sunny Czech countryside.

Two vivid evocations of the sea make up the first half of this concert. Mendelssohn’s, with its gentle waves soon building up to a squall, was inspired by his visit to the island of Staffa in 1829. Elgar’s is a ravishing setting of five poems, including one by his wife Alice, assuring us that through life’s storms ‘Love alone will last’. Alice Coote’s rich and glowing tone is perfectly suited to Elgar’s expressive writing.

In the second half, Dvořák’s Symphony No. 5 conjures up a rural idyll. Lyrical woodwind melodies give the first movement a pastoral mood, paving the way for an expressive Nocturne and a joyful Allegro. The finale is darker and more dramatic – a critic at the British premiere in 1888 wrote to congratulate the composer on “a grand inspiration, written in a masterful form”.