‘The greatness of the human soul’: epic responses to world events.

This programme invites you to encounter the darkness of the world, but also to journey to the light. Habibi’s Zhiân was written in response to state brutality in Iran, yet the music is determined ‘to continue striving towards a … vibrant future’. Korngold, veteran of some of Hollywood’s best film scores, poured his experience into this swooningly gorgeous violin concerto written in 1945, and performed here by the brilliant Carolin Widmann. In 1944 Prokofiev returned to war-ravaged Russia to compose his mighty Symphony no. 5. Tianyi Lu leads the CBSO in this epic discovery of, as Prokofiev put it, ‘the greatness of the human soul’.