Mailing Lists

Hector Berlioz

Walton ‘Crown Imperial’

Elgar ‘Sospiri’

Arnold Clarinet Concerto No. 2
    Soloist Hale Hambleton

Berlioz ‘Symphonie Fantastique’

For 2012, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year, we open with Walton’s 1937 coronation march. The poignant ‘Sospiri’ (sighs) cools the mood, ready to be revived by Arnold’s jazzy concerto, originally written for Benny Goodman. In 1830 Berlioz took the musical world into new realms with his vivid picture of passionate but unrequited love that eventually turns into a wild nightmare.

Dear Concertgoer

Happy New Year! I had not expected to write so soon, but I bring you some bad news, some good news – and some even better news.

The bad news is that in early December, we learned that the Great Hall at Ravensbourne School, our regular concert hall since at least the 1950s, would not be available to us for our January or March 2012 concerts. This has obviously caused us some headaches in seeking to find somewhere else in Bromley for these concerts at such short notice.

The good news is that not so far away the Ravens Wood School, in Oakley Road, just off Bromley Common, has just completed construction of a new hall. We have held one of our orchestra rehearsals there to confirm that it is suitable for us, and some orchestra members have also attended Bromley Youth Music Trust concerts and can confirm that the audience experience in the hall is good. So our next two concerts will take place in this hall and not at Ravensbourne School.

Our  original published programme for March had included Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, but we have decided that the slightly drier acoustic of the Ravens Wood hall would not show this magnificent work at its best since Bruckner’s musical style always benefits from a degree of resonance. Therefore we have decided to postpone the Bruckner symphony until our 2012/13 season when we can do it full justice and therefore to change the March 2012 programme. We have been most fortunate in that the superb pianist Masa Tayama, who received such an ecstatic response from our audience on both the recent occasions he performed with us, is available on this date to perform Beethoven’s most well known piano concerto, the “Emperor”. This will be coupled with the Overture and Polovtsian Dances from “Prince Igor” by Borodin, whose music has been so often plundered for use in lighter popular genres - eg “Stranger in Paradise”, “Bau bles, Bangles and Beads” and the musical “Kismet”. He could really write good tunes! The other item on the programme is Bartok’s great “Concerto for Orchestra”, a true 20th Century classic which really puts the various sections of the orchestra through their paces.

The even better news is that we have decided to move the final concert of the season in May to the brand new Legacy Hall, Bromley’s first ever purpose designed concert hall. Its construction is due to be completed this month. It was designed with specialist acoustical consultants and has fully tiered seating for the audience, giving an excellent view of the orchestra from all seating areas. We had previously planned to move our concerts to Legacy Hall in November 2012, but performing the May concert there will give you an earlier opportunity to see the hall and decide where you would like to sit for future seasons.

Writing to you now also gives me an opportunity to let you know about an extra event we have just planned for June at Legacy Hall: our summer workshop. These workshops are when the orchestra assembles for a day to work on something special which we might not otherwise get a chance to play. The day concludes with an informal performance in the early evening, and audiences may attend this at no charge, although a collection is made to help us recover some of our costs.

The work we have chosen is amazing and virtually unknown, since although completed in 1880, it was only rediscovered in1989. It is the Symphony in E by a fellow student with Mahler, Hans Rott, who unfortunately went mad shortly after finishing it and died at the early age of 25. Mahler greatly admired this symphony, and his own symphonies, the first of which was written 8 years later, show strong influences. If you appreciate Mahler’s music you will enjoy Rott’s Symphony. It’s well worth hearing.

This marks an exciting new era for BSO and we look forward to seeing you at our concerts.

Yours sincerely

John Carmichael
For Bromley Symphony Orchestra

PS – You may like to know that you can hear a very good complete performance of Rott’s Symphony on www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNep21n90yk