FROM ENGLAND WITH LOVE

PROGRAMME

EDWARD ELGAR
Cockaigne (In London Town)
concert overture 

FREYA WALEY-COHEN
Violin Concerto 

WILLIAM WALTON
Belshazzar's Feast 

PERFORMERS

Conductor YOEL GAMZOU
Violin TAMSIN WALEY-COHEN
Bass-baritone TOMASZ KONIECZNY

Chorus and Orchestra of the Polish National Opera 

I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow. 
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
William Blake, London, 1794

The title of the piece refers to a land of plenty and earthly pleasures, a place where gluttony, drunkenness, and indulgence reign supreme. Elgar treated the theme with a touch of humour. His London buzzes with energy: its inhabitants are busy but happy; proud yet gifted with a sense of humour; immersed in the urban hustle and bustle yet noble. The character of the city emerges especially in the main ‘London’ theme, where the brass section plays a significant role.

Freya Waley-Cohen speaks with a different, contemporary London voice. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, her work is characterised by a distinctive, almost vitalistic sense of rhythm, juxtaposed with elegant, clear melodies. Has she treated the musical material in a similar way in her Violin Concerto? As she said ahead of the work’s premiere set to take place on 20 June 2026 during the Aldeburgh Festival: ‘As a child, every night when I went to bed, Tamsin would be practising her violin in the next-door room, so the sound of her playing violin became the thing I dreamed to. When I write for violin, her sound is what I hear in my head: the way she phrases things, breathes with the music, and how the different registers of the violin come to life in her hands. As I write my first violin concerto, I am thinking of her musicality, and the sound of her violin mixed with my dreams.’ 

It is the composer’s sister, Tamsin Waley-Cohen, who will debut the work, aptly subtitled Dreamer, alongside the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Kevin John Edusei. The audience at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw will hear the second-ever performance of the work, again featuring Tamsin Waley-Cohen.

Our London musical tales will conclude with William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast. The work was commissioned by the BBC in 1931, but its scale soon outstripped the modest capabilities of the studio, which had expected a small-scale composition intended for radio and television broadcasts. Ultimately, the work was first performed on 8 October 1931 during the Leeds Triennial Festival. 

The cantata is based on the biblical story of Belshazzar, King of Babylon, who indulged in lavish feasts and debauchery during the siege of the city. When he desecrated the vessels plundered from the Temple in Jerusalem, he met his punishment. Babylon fell to the onslaught of its enemies, and the king himself perished. Walton captured the vanity and monumental quality of the story not only through an impressive instrumentation, but also through a demanding yet utterly spectacular baritone solo part, which will be performed during the concert by the irreplaceable Tomasz Konieczny.