Sir Malcolm Arnold’s Second Symphony was commissioned by the Winter Garden’s Society Bournemouth and is dedicated to Charles Groves and the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra in celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of the orchestra; they gave the first performance on 25th May 1953.

Composer's Notes:This piece written during the winter months of 2000-2001 consists of one movement Allegro con fuoco in which an old score is revisited raided and ravished by its composer. The earlier music hadbeen written in the mid-fifties for a stage work Maratona di Danza and for its maker the director Luchino Visconti.Elements from the older piece reappear on and off like shadows under the surface of new ones like more orless vague memories images of young people suffering pain and despair in their struggle for survival in a barbaric pitiless modern world.My new composition is a kind of concerto for very large symphony orchestra an étude onconstant and often rapid musical changes of mood and colours built on a variety of rhythmic figures incessantly and brutally pushing the music ahead. Sometimes it is as though voices are weeping sometimes crying out loud withpain with anxiety under the cold hearted pressure of an overwhelming violence. Hans Werner Henze Commissioned on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of das neue werk Hamburg. Premiered on 29th June 2001. Duration 15minutes.