Walton's Belshazzar’s Feast
Dramatic and exciting choral offering
The final concert in the Sheffield Internal Concert Season features the Halle with Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus and Leeds Festival Chorus, with baritone Benedict Nelson under the direction of Finnegan Downie Dear. Together they will present Walton’s dramatic cantata, Belshazzar’s Feast. First performed at the 1931 Leeds Festival, the richly orchestrated music is strongly rhythmic and reflects the composer’s interest in jazz and other popular music. This dramatic work will be truly fitting finale to this fantastic Sheffield International Concert Season.
Opening the concert are Britten’s brilliantly-realised Sea Interludes, that act as clever scene changes from his post-war opera Peter Grimes, telling the dark tale of the cantankerous and misunderstood fisherman, followed by Thomas Adès’s brilliantly orchestrated showstopper, Inferno, described by the LA Times as ‘a sizzling, cracking whip of a piece'.
Performers
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus (Symphonic Chorus), Leeds Festival Chorus (Chorus), the Halle (Orchestra), Finnegan Downie Dear (Conductor) and Benedict Nelson (Baritone)
Programme
- BRITTEN: Peter Grimes: Four Sea Interludes
- ADÈS: Inferno Suite
- WALTON: Belshazzar's Feast