Dalia Stasevska conducts Isabelle Faust in Berg’s Violin Concerto

Tales from a dark century: Isabelle Faust plays Berg’s Violin Concerto, in a concert that embraces nature myths, songs of loss, and the splitting of the atom. “Batter my heart, three person’d God”. John Adams’s Doctor Atomic tells the story of the Manhattan Project: a drama of humans unlocking the fundamental forces of Creation itself, told in music of shattering originality. In the composer’s 80th birthday year, his Doctor Atomic symphony is a suitably apocalyptic conclusion to an evening of 20th century parables. It starts with Sibelius on the brink of silence, gazing into the primal forests of Finland and sensing a natural power beyond mere humanity. And burning with emotion at the heart of the concert is the haunting Violin Concerto that Alban Berg dedicated “to the memory of an angel”; a passionate and intensely personal testament of grief. Dalia Stasevska joins forces with Isabelle Faust, one of its finest living interpreters. Programme Jean Sibelius Tapiola Alban Berg Violin Concerto John Adams Doctor Atomic Symphony Performers Dalia Stasevska conductor Isabelle Faust violin BBC Symphony Orchestra