Archive

Kabalevsky

 

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 
    Soloist Masa Tayama

Prokofiev ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (Selection from suites 1 & 2)

Kabalevsky’s sparkling overture brilliantly captures the carefree moods of an exuberant hero in the mould of Till Eulenspeigel and Robin Hood. The Tchaikovsky concerto was famously rejected by its original dedicatee Nikolai Rubinstein as being worthless, unplayable and vulgar. How very wrong this has proved to be! Ever since its premiere in 1875 it has been overwhelmingly popular with audiences – and a challenge for pianists. Prokofiev’s celebrated ballet is so full of the most wonderful tunes and orchestral colour that it is a pity that time does not allow us to play it all, but only a generous selection.

Bridge

Chausson ‘Poeme de l’amour et de la mer’ 
Soloist Emilien Hamel

Britten ‘Sea Interludes’  

Debussy ‘La Mer’ 

Our theme for this concert is the sea in all its moods. The ‘Sea Interludes’ and ‘La Mer’ are well known concert favourites and make attractive partners for Chausson’s evocative ‘Poème’ and Bridge’s orchestral suite, which Britten heard as a boy of 10 and was “knocked sideways” by what he heard. Bridge subsequently became Britten’s teacher and profoundly influenced his musical development.

Elgar

Strauss ‘Four last Songs’ 
Soloist Janice Watson

Dvořák Symphony No.8

Elgar’s most luxuriant and expansive concert overture shows his facility with music on both the grandest scale and the most intimate. Strauss’s final completed work deals with death, but with a wonderful sense of calm acceptance, and features soaring melodies for the soloist against full orchestra. Dvořák’s symphony has a warm and optimistic tone, full of tunes inspired by the Bohemian folk music that he loved.

Berlioz

Bruch Violin Concerto No.1
Soloist Laura Samuel

Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from ‘Tristan and Isolde’  

Elgar ‘Enigma’ Variations

Our season opens with this brilliant overture, full of imaginative orchestral colour, vitality and melody. The Bruch concerto, justifiably one of the most popular in the orchestral repertoire is followed by Wagner’s powerful picture of doomed love, death and ultimately transfiguration. We end with Elgar’s well known portrait of “my friends pictured within” which was the piece which really secured his international reputation.

Dmitri Shostakovitch Symphony No. 7 (‘Leningrad’)

Adrian introduced the work at 5.50pm, followed by an informal performance at about 6.15pm.

The session was free, but donations were welcome; no tickets were issued.

Robert Schumann

Philip Rowson

SchumannSymphony No.3

Mozart Flute Concerto No.1 in G major
    Soloist Philip Rowson

Strauss ‘Till Eulenspiegel’ 

Schumann’s “Rhenish” is perhaps his brightest and most optimistic work. Its tunefulness and folk-like character quickly made it one of his greatest successes and its popularity has endured to the present day. Despite Mozart’s well known claim to dislike the flute, he wrote very well for it, including this delightful concerto. Strauss’s tone poem chronicles the misadventures and pranks of a mischievous German peasant folk-hero. We hear him upsetting market stalls, poking fun at the clergy, flirting with girls and mocking academics. But eventually he is captured and sentenced to death for blasphemy!

Gustav Mahler

Hector Berlioz

Eurico Pereira

Berlioz

Ravel ‘Rapsodie Espagnole’ 

Rodrigo ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ 
    Soloist Eurico Pereira (Guitar)

Respighi ‘Roman Festivals’ 

This programme burns with Mediterranean heat and passion, opening with an exuberant overture, one of Berlioz’s most popular works. Ravel’s Spanish “Rapsodie” has three short movements of sensuous colour and elegance and a dazzling finale. Staying in Spain, the Rodrigo is perhaps the most well known of all guitar concertos, especially its evocative slow movement. Respighi said that “Roman Festivals”, his vivid celebration of ancient Rome, represented his absolute peak of orchestral sonority and colour. It’s certainly that!

Sergei Rachmaninov

Masa Tayama

Tchaikovsky

RachmaninovPiano Concerto No.2
    Soloist Masa Tayama

Rimsky-Korsakov ‘Scheherazade’ 

In a programme of romantic Russian music, what could be more romantic than this lovely concerto, familar even to non-classical music lovers through its use in the classic film “Brief Encounter”? Before that,”Hamlet” captures the many moods of the Bard’s great play. In Rimsky-Korsakov’s colourful suite, based on the age-old “Tales of 1001 Nights”, the solo violin represents Scheherazade as she tells a series of enthralling stories that will spare her life.