Davis Delicate Tension
Berlioz Les nuits d’été
Prokofiev Symphony No 5

Opening the concert is Delicate Tension by Tyson J. Davis, 18 years old and from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, one of two Apprentice Composers on the NYO USA Orchestra Roster this summer. Commissioned by the U.S. Embassy of Berlin in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and inspired by the Kandinsky painting of the same name, the piece reflects on the dynamic between the Soviet Union and the West prior to fall of the Wall.

Flamboyant, captivating, constantly surprising: Kansas-born mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato is one of today’s classical music giants, with a personality as vibrant and joyful as her breathtaking voice.

She joins the Carnegie Hall-based National Youth Orchestra of the USA for the sultry opulence of Berlioz’s six ravishing love songs of summer evenings.

Sir Antonio Pappano – the Royal Opera’s music director, and much lauded with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia at International Festival 2016 – concludes this dramatic programme with Prokofiev’s brilliantly joyous Fifth Symphony, an exuberant celebration of the human spirit.