Music has long been a voice for resistance, remembrance and renewal. In this striking and emotionally charged programme, the Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra explores how composers have responded to injustice, conflict, and the call for change.
They open with Sibelius’s Finlandia — a defiant musical cry for independence and national identity, written under the shadow of Russian censorship. Then comes Ethel Smyth’s March of the Women, a rousing anthem of the suffragette movement celebrating women’s fight for equality, newly arranged for orchestra by Zoë Birtwhistle.
American composer Margaret Bonds channels the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in her deeply moving Montgomery Variations, reflecting on pivotal moments of the civil rights movement. Prokofiev’s final symphony (Symphony No. 7 in C# minor), meanwhile, balances tenderness and irony in a work often seen as his quiet protest against artistic repression in Stalinist Russia.
The evening closes with Pēteris Vasks’ The Fruit of Silence – a meditative, spiritual work inspired by the words of Mother Teresa, offering a moment of reflection amid the unrest.
The fruit of silence is prayer.
The fruit of prayer is faith.
The fruit of faith is love.
The fruit of love is service.
The fruit of service is peace.
This concert offers a rich, powerful journey through music that dares to speak out.
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