Rustioni conducts Bernstein and Rachmaninoff

What is the true voice of America? For Leonard Bernstein, West Side Story was a plea for tolerance in a violent world, expressed through electrifying dance rhythms. For Sergei Rachmaninoff, the USA was a land of new possibilities and sorrowful exile – emotions that pulse and soar throughout his glorious, glittering Third Symphony. 

But in the USA’s 250th anniversary year, there are still questions to be asked – and in ANTHEM, Barbican artist in residence Davóne Tines collaborates with an array of living American composers (Michael Schachter, Caroline Shaw and Tyshawn Sorey), and poet Mahogony L. Browne, to ask what a nation is, and what it might yet be. Between Bernstein’s and Rachmaninoff’s very personal testimonies, it’s a compelling centrepiece to an evening of music that’s never felt more timely.