BBC Concert Orchestra 2023-2024 The Soldier's Tale at the University of Nottingham

A theatrical work by Igor Stravinsky and Swiss writer Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, ‘The Soldier’s Tale’ (L'Histoire du soldat) is the composer’s greatest work for narrator and orchestra.

It is the story of a soldier trudging home, who trades his violin to the devil in return for a magic book that can tell the future and make him rich. Eventually, realising that wealth is meaningless, the soldier deliberately loses a card game with the Devil to win back his fiddle. But the Devil is not so easily beaten…

Featuring a septet of BBC Concert Orchestra musicians – violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone and percussion – and star guest narrator, Alistair McGowan - this is one of a double-bill of concerts presented in Nottingham by the BBC Concert Orchestra. On Friday 19 April, the Orchestra performs Wynton Marsalis' ‘A Fiddler's Tale’, a retelling of Stravinsky’s work, at University Hall, Nottingham Trent University.

This concert is being recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3.