Conductor: Douglas Bostock

“England ahoy!” – The first subscription concert marks the brilliant prelude of a musical journey, which makes one thing clear: England is – with all prejudices – no country without music. The Englishman Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, with his short orchestral sketches for five pictures by the artist Paul Klee, presents a work that was considered by many to be the starting point of a new musical education in Great Britain. Sir Hubert Parry’s “Symphonic Variations”, on the other hand, are still clearly committed to the German tradition, which was extremely popular in London’s concert halls. Edward Gregson’s “Saxophone Concerto”, which premiered in 2006, is again in the tradition of an important medium for England – and also for Switzerland – the brass band. In his “Pagan” Symphony, Sir Granville Bantock uses the descriptive possibilities of music to – inspired by Richard Strauss – paint a vision of the past with a colorful palette of sounds.