Evelyn joins Nicholas Daniel and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for a performance of ‘Two’s Company’ in celebration of Thea Musgrave’s 90th birthday.

Born and educated in Edinburgh, Thea Musgrave celebrates her 90th birthday this May and the BBC SSO marks the occasion with a special event showcasing her work. At the centre of the concert is ‘Two’s Company’, a piece commissioned by the BBC in 2005, which brings together the seemingly incompatible sound worlds of percussion and the oboe for a dialogue that’s by turns frivolous, frustrated and eventually harmonious. The two soloists for whom it was written, Evelyn Glennie and Nicholas Daniel, perform it here. Join them and conductor Jac van Steen to celebrate an artist who, in the words of The Guardian, “communicates on the most immediate level, because it’s often so sheerly pleasurable to listen to.” The concert also includes a rare chance to hear a performance of Aaron Copland’s Second Symphony, which dates from the early 1930s, and ‘Celebration’, an exuberant work by Musgrave’s lifelong friend Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012).

The concert will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Thea Musgrave: Two’s Company double concerto for oboe and percussion (21 minutes)

Jack van Steen: Conductor