The past filtered through the present: Jessica Cottis conducts Britten, Ravel & Stravinsky

Conductor Jessica Cottis, whom I interviewed recently, makes her debut with the English Chamber Orchestra at Cadogan Hall on Saturday 16 March 2019, in a programme which includes Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, with tenor Ben Johnson, a former BBC New Generation Artist, and horn player Ben Goldscheider, a BBC Young Musician Finalist [see my interview with Ben Goldscheider].

Britten's serenade brilliantly combines his very 20th century music with older poetry, and Cottis has chosen to complement it with three works which give us 20th century composers reworking and looking back to the music of the past, Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin,  written in memory of friends lost in World War One yet revitalising dances from the age of Couperin, Britten's Purcell arrangements Six songs from Orpheus Brittanicus which subtly re-work Britten's beloved Purcell and Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite which is the composer's witty take on a series of Baroque pieces which were once thought to be by Pergolesi. Interestingly, the music in the programmes dates from a remarkably narrow window (less than 30 years) in the 20th century with Ravel 's work dating from 1914/1917, Stravinsky's from 1920/1922 and Britten's serenade from 1943.

Full details from the ECO website.