Péter Eötvös “Senza sangue” (UK Premiere), BBC Symphony Orchestra

BartókConcerto for Orchestra | Péter Eötvös Senza sangue (UK premiere) 

BBC Symphony Orchestra| Simone Young  Conductor | Christine Rice  mezzo-soprano | Russell Braun  baritone

Two works by two Hungarian composers sit side by side in a dramatic highlight of the BBC SO’s season – Bartók’s virtuosic Concerto for Orchestra and the UK premiere of living composer Peter Eötvös’s one-act opera, Senza Sangue.

Individual instruments are treated as soloists or appear in exhilarating duets in Bartók’s dramatic showpiece, which reinvents the orchestra itself. Peter Eötvös’s opera explores a single encounter during a civil war, in which a man kills a woman’s father, but spares her. Destiny ensures their paths cross again but vengeance isn’t what she seeks – she needs saving a second time.