Following the sad news of the death of Sir Colin Davis on April 14, today, the London Symphony Orchestra announced that the two closing concerts of the LSO's season--on June 16 and 18 in Barbican Hall (which Davis was due to conduct)--will now be a tribute to the orchestra's former president, principal conductor and great friend.
The music and artists taking part in the memorial all have close connections to the late Sir Colin Davis.
Patrick Harrild, LSO principal tuba, will conduct Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School musicians in a performance of Strauss' Festmusik der Stadt Wien.
Joseph Wolfe, Colin Davis' own son, will conduct his father's beloved Berlioz.
Nikolaj Znaider will play Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3--one of Sir Colin's favorites and a work they had planned to perform together.
Gordan Nikolich will direct the LSO in Beethoven's Symphony No. 8, the same symphony that inspired a teenage Colin Davis to become a conductor.
Davis was also president of the London Symphony Chorus, and in tribute, the chorus will close the program with Brahms' setting of Friedrich Schiller's poem, Nänie, Op. 82.
Scored for full orchestra and chorus, Brahms composed the piece in 1881--in memory of his friend Anselm Feuerbach.
Noted for its difficult voice writing, Nänie, Op. 82 is rarely performed.
A true lamentation, the first line of Schiller's poem translates: "Even the beautiful must die."
Sir Colin Davis died in London at the age of 85.
Fittingly, his last concert with the LSO was a summer 2012 performance of Berlioz's Requiem.
