Simple Gifts

New worlds for old: between the Wars, one of the most popular names in British classical music was a mixed-race composer from Holborn. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha used to draw sell-out crowds, and when you hear its overture, you’ll be astonished that it was ever forgotten. Then the incomparable Alina Ibragimova breathes sparkling new life into Prokofiev’s Russian fairytale of a First Violin Concerto, and guest conductor Joshua Weilerstein strikes out for the frontier in Copland’s Appalachian Spring: a life-affirming vision of the American dream, painted in clean lines and primary colours. Simplicity never sounded quite so sophisticated – and you’ll be humming those tunes all week