Chris de Souza introduces a concert from
Symphony Hall in which the CBSO continue their cycle of Ives's symphonies with the first in the canon. Written in 1898, it was the composer's graduation piece from Yale and is modelled on Dvorak's
New World Symphony, which had received its first performance just five years previously in New York. The concert opens with another early work by Ives, his flamboyant Variations on "America", featuring the Symphony Hall organ. Carleton Etherington (organ), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conductor Steven Sloane
Ives Variations on "America"
Ives Symphony No 1
8.20 Twenty Minutes: Nobody Will Laugh An extract from a short story by Milan Kundera, translated from the Czech by Suzanne Rappaport. A university lecturer makes an insincere promise and sets off a chain of lies that draws in his secretary, his girlfriend, and even his entire class. Read by Robert Lindsay.
8.40 Dvorak Symphony No 9 in E minor (From the New World)