London Symphony Orchestra: Spellbound Tableaux world premiere

Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s 1945 film noir Spellbound, Spellbound Tableaux is a set of five scenes, each drawing inspiration from ideas or moments within the film; from the iconic dream sequence designed by Salvador Dali to Hitchcock’s cameo appearance as a violinist and the theme of death. With each scene, the music contracts and expands from a parred back chamber group to an orchestra at full force, conjuring up new musical worlds. True to the film, Spellbound Tableaux has its own pseudo-cryptic feel with a series of musical cryptograms.

The programme opens with Sophya Polevaya’s Spellbound Tableaux. Elgar’s Cello Concerto follows, before Bartók’s frenetic, intense and scandalous pantomime ballet The Miraculous Mandarin concludes the concert.

SOPHYA POLEVAYA Spellbound Tableaux (world premiere) *
ELGAR Cello Concerto
Interval
BARTÓK The Miraculous Mandarin

François-Xavier Roth conductor
Alisa Weilerstein cello
London Symphony Chorus
Simon Halsey chorus director
London Symphony Orchestra

*Commissioned through the Panufnik Composers Scheme, generously supported by Lady Hamlyn and The Helen Hamlyn Trust