Brahms’s Second Symphony

Solemn ritual and holiday sunshine collide in a concert by Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. The incense-scented processional splendour of Gabrieli’s In ecclesiis and Canzone a tre core, transcribed with contemporary clarity by Bruno Maderna, frame Stravinsky’s last major work – the ‘pocket-requiem’ he knew he was ‘writing for himself’. Step out of church and into the pastoral warmth of Brahms’s happiest symphony, written on th...