Summary

Middle Eastern music of heart-wrenching beauty and hypnotic energy meets the western imagination of sensuality and drama along the medieval Silk Road.

Hassan is an unlikely hero – an unattractive Baghdad sweet merchant who is comically rebuffed by his would-be love. But the mood changes when he is accidentally taken into the court of the city’s all-powerful ruler, whose shocking brutality and corruption sickens him. Written 100 years ago, Delius’s richly evocative incidental music to James Elroy Flecker’s play is very rarely performed – here we experience it in a compelling adaptation for narrator and orchestra.

In the first half Britten Sinfonia is joined by Joseph Tawadros, virtuoso player of the Oud, a close cousin of the lute powerfully evocative of the Middle East. He plays the solo part in a concerto by Vivaldi originally written for the mandolin and gives the premiere of a new concerto, his irresistible joy and energy complemented by whirling orchestral textures.