The BBC National Orchestra of Wales under David Artherton with composer and sitar player Nishat Khan.
Holst: ' Indra' (12 mins)
Nishat Khan: ' The Gate of the Moon' (Sitar Concerto No 1) (BBC
Commission, World Premiere)
Vaughan Williams : 'A London Symphony' (Symphony No 2)
(Two visions of India and a portrait of London. Gustav Holst’s fascination with Sanksrit literature found early expression in the 1903 tone-poem 'Indra', composed before the first set of his 'Hymns' from the 'Rig Veda' (see PCM 5). David Atherton conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in this and the world premiere of Nishat Khan’s Sitar Concerto No 1, with the composer as soloist.
First performed in 1914, Vaughan Williams’s 'A London Symphony' evokes the chimes of Westminster, a chill November in Bloomsbury and the bright lights of the Strand in a city that would soon be scarred by war.)
(Note: at 5.15pm in the Royal College of Music there is a Proms Plus Intro event. Louise Fryer talks to Stephen Johnson and musicologist Kate Kennedy about Vaughan Williams and introduces 'A London Symphony'.)