Dalia Stasevska conducts Berg's Violin Concerto

The evening

“Batter my heart, three person’d God”. John Adams’s 'Doctor Atomic' tells the story of the Manhattan Project: a drama of humans unlocking the fundamental forces of Creation itself, told in music of shattering originality. In the composer’s 80th birthday year, his 'Doctor Atomic' symphony is a suitably apocalyptic conclusion to an evening of 20th century parables.

It starts with Sibelius on the brink of silence, gazing into the primal forests of Finland and sensing a natural power beyond mere humanity. And burning with emotion at the heart of the concert is the haunting Violin Concerto that Alban Berg dedicated “to the memory of an angel”; a passionate and intensely personal testament of grief. Dalia Stasevska joins forces with Isabelle Faust, one of its finest living interpreters.