Water Music, With A Twist of Tragedy

Composers draw inspiration from any number of sources, but current events are usually not terribly high on the list. But for Michael Berkeley, whose new Concerto for Orchestra will get its world premiere at the BBC Proms next week, news of the tsunami devastation in southeast Asia in December 2004 changed the course of his work and led him to embrace a muse many composers – particularly Britons – have turned to over the centuries: namely, the sea.