Archive

Concert Saturday 16th November 2013 at 19:45

Wagner Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Overture (Prelude to Act 1) 

Britten Violin Concerto 
    Soloist Mathieu van Bellen

Wagner Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Act 3 Prelude

Beethoven Symphony No. 7 

Beethoven described his seventh symphony as ‘one of my best’, a view shared by audiences who demanded an encore of the second movement on its début performance. Wagner famously described it as ‘the apotheosis of the dance.’ Young Dutch virtuoso Mathieu van Bellen assists us to mark the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten with a performance of his violin concerto, which was inspired by Beethoven’s. Here economy of material is illuminated by virtuosic violin writing and scintillating use of orchestral tone colour. The brilliant overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg delivers the complete opera in miniature; all the main themes are there. We add the atmospheric prelude to Act 3 to launch a season celebrating the 200th anniversary of Wagner’s birth. 
 

Concert Saturday 18th May 2013 at 19:45

Piotr Tchaikovsky

Shostakovich Festive Overture

Khachaturian Violin concerto
    Soloist Bernard Brook 

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique)

The final concert of our season opens with the brilliant Festive Overture, a vivacious musical firework. Khachaturian’s concerto is a magnificent whirlwind of powerful emotions and unbridled energy. The Pathétique is a complex mixture of emotions – sorrow, hope, and happiness tinged with a foreboding of despair – a mixture that has ensured its enduring popular appeal.

Concert Saturday 16th March 2013 at 19:45

Anton Bruckner

Bruckner Symphony No. 8

The Eighth Symphony is a monumental work, full of the composer’s characteristic ‘trade marks’ but taking them further than ever before: a mysterious opening, dramatic climaxes and contrasts, a lively dancing scherzo, a heartfelt slow movement – he believed it was his best one – and finally a very powerful finale which brings it all together in a glorious blaze of triumph.

Allegro moderato

Scherzo. Allegro moderato – Trio, langsam

Adagio. Feierlich langsam, doch nicht schleppend

Finale. Fierlich, nicht schnell

Concert Saturday 26th January 2013 at 19:45

Antonin Dvořák

Suk Fairy Tales

Mahler Rückert Lieder
    Baritone Laurence Meikle

Dvořák Symphony No. 7

Suk’s Fairy Tale is a colourful suite of four movements drawn from music he wrote for a theatre piece. Mahler’s set of five songs, based on poems by Friedrich Rückert, share a mood of intimacy and quiet withdrawal. The Seventh Symphony, dramatic and darkly passionate and expressing the defiance of the underdog, is perhaps Dvořák’s greatest.

Concert Saturday 17th November 2012 at 7:45pm

Concert dedicated to the memory of Malcolm Smith

Sir Edward Elgar

Bax ‘Tintagel’

Elgar Cello concerto
    Soloist Jamie Walton

Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 2 (London)

Bax’s best known work paints a vivid picture of the Cornish castle of Tintagel, battered by the Atlantic on a sunny day. Elgar’s wonderful concerto, contemplative and elegiac, has become a much loved cornerstone of the cello repertoire. The symphony depicts various London scenes, including the Westminster chimes, hansom cabs, street sellers’ cries, and the moods and tempos of our capital city.

Bax: Tintagel (Note: Closed captions are available by clicking “CC”)

Elgar – Cello Concerto

Vaughan Williams

Summer Workshop - Sunday 10th June 2012

Hans Rott

Our Summer Workshop is an occasion when the orchestra spends a day rehearsing an interesting work then gives an early evening informal performance which audiences may attend at no charge, although a collection is made to help cover our costs. The rehearsal is open to non-member players (who should apply beforehand) and spectators, including (silent) children.

The work to be studied this year is the Symphony in E by Hans Rott, a composer few people have encountered. He was a brilliant fellow student with Mahler, but sadly went mad and died at the age of 25. Mahler greatly admired this symphony, and his own symphonies, the first of which was written 8 years after Rott’s, show very strong influences. Anyone who appreciates Mahler’s music will enjoy this.

Concert Saturday 19th May 2012 at 7:45pm

Johannes Brahms

Rossini Overture ‘William Tell’ 

Walton Two pieces from ‘Henry V’  

Strauss Horn Concerto No. 2 
    Soloist Richard Watkins

Massenet Méditation from Thaïs
    Soloist Bernard Brook

Brahms Symphony No. 4 

Rossini’s overture is very well known, not least for its galloping finale which became the ‘Lone Ranger’ theme music. Music for strings from Walton’s ‘Henry V’ film music calms things down. Strauss’s love for the horn shines though all his orchestral works, and particularly in this late concerto which needs a real virtuoso soloist. We conclude our season with this wonderful symphony, which has been a mainstay of the orchestral repertoire ever since it was written.

Rossini: Overture ‘William Tell’
Introduction

Overture

Walton: Two pieces from ‘Henry V’
Introduction

Henry V Suite 2 – Passacaglia: The Death of Falstaff

Henry V Suite 4 – Touch her soft lips and part

Richard Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 2
Introduction

Allegro

Andante con moto

Rondo (Allegro molto)

Massenet: Méditation from Thaïs
Introduction

Méditation

Bernard Brook tribute

Brahms: Symphony No. 4
Introduction

Allegro Non Troppo

Andante Moderato

Allegro Giocoso – Poco Meno Presto

Allegro Energico e Passionato – Più Allegro

Concert Saturday 17th March 2012 at 7:45pm

Ludwig van Beethoven

Borodin Overture and Polovtsian Dances from ‘Prince Igor’

Beethoven Piano Concerto No 5 ‘The Emperor’
    Soloist Masa Tayama

Bartók Concerto for Orchestra

Borodin’s wonderful music is very widely known, much of it having been adapted for use in lighter and popular genres, notably in the musical ‘Kismet’. For Beethoven’s most well loved piano concerto, we are delighted to welcome back Masa, whose previous appearances with us met with such enormous acclaim. Bartók certainly puts the various sections of the orchestra through their paces in his showpiece concerto, a true 20th Century classic.

Concert Saturday 21st January 2012 at 7:45pm

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.

Saturday 12th November 2011 at 7:45pm

Franz Liszt

Elgar ‘Pomp & Circumstance March No. 4′  Barber ‘Adagio for Strings’   Liszt Symphonic Poem ‘Tasso’  Elgar ‘Violin Concerto’  Soloist Sasha Rozhdestvensky We celebrate Liszt’s 2011 bicentenary with one of his great tone poems. Barber’s well-loved Adagio was originally part of his second string quartet. But we begin and end with Elgar. This march is less familiar than the famous No 1, but no less memorable. The Violin Concerto, premiered in 1910, gained immediate popularity and has remained a firm favourite on concert programmes ever since.

Saturday 21st May 2011 at 7:45pm

Jean Sibelius

Schubert ‘Symphony No. 8’ (Unfinished) Paul Creston ‘Marimba Concertino’ Soloist Alexander Main-Ian Sibelius ‘Symphony No.2′  This Schubert symphony has remained one of the most well loved in the concert repertoire in what seems a perfect unfinished state, though others have tried to complete it. Creston’s Concertino is distinctly tonal in the modern American idiom and possessed of a strong rhythmic sense. Sibelius’s Second is by far the most popular of his symphonies. Its style is characteristic Sibelius, with marvellous dark-hued sonorities, expansive brass chorales, passionate expressiveness, and at the end, with screwed up tension leading to a glorious triumphant conclusion.

Saturday 19th March 2011 at 7:45pm

Carl Nielsen

Walton ‘Spitfire Prelude and Fugue’ Sibelius ‘Violin Concerto’     Soloist Anna-Liisa Bezrodny Nielsen ‘Symphony No.5’  The opening item comes from Walton’s music written for the 1942 film ‘The First of the Few’. Sibelius’s only concerto, in turn stormy and tense, quiet and lyrical, and with a dazzling dancing finale, demands forceful dramatic playing from the soloist. Nielsen’s Fifth, widely regarded as his greatest masterpiece, portrays conflict with disturbing but exhilarating power: the contrast between darkness and light, ominous militarism and peace, evil and good, which eventually leads to an affirmative conclusion.

Saturday 22nd January 2011 at 7:45pm

Igor Stravinsky

Rimsky-Korsakov ‘Capriccio Espagnol’ Richard Strauss ‘Oboe Concerto’      Soloist Caroline Marwood Stravinsky ‘Petrushka’  Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol captures the warmth and exuberance of Spain in brilliant technicolour, a free rhapsody based on folksong tunes. The Strauss concerto uses only a small orchestra and provides a wonderful showcase for our principal oboist. Stravinsky’s charming ballet depicts the colourful atmosphere of the Shrovetide Fair and draws on Russian folk melodies to tell the story of a puppet unsuccessful in love.

Saturday 13th November 2010 at 7:45pm

Gustav Mahler

Beethoven Overture ‘Coriolan’  Berlioz ‘Reverie et Caprice’      Soloist Bernard Brook Mahler Symphony No. 5 After Beethoven’s tensely dramatic overture and Berlioz’s elegant romance, we celebrate Mahler’s 150th anniversary year with the vast musical canvas and emotional scope of his Fifth Symphony. Its moods include grim and funereal, savage and angry, ebullient and dancing, lyrical and romantic, and finally radiant and triumphant. Its famous adagietto has become particularly well known through its use in Visconti’s classic film ‘Death in Venice’.

Beethoven: Overture ‘Coriolan’

Berlioz: ‘Reverie et Caprice’

Mahler: Symphony No 5 
Funeral March

Second Movement

Scherzo

Adagietto

Rondo Finale

Sunday 13th June 2010

Saturday 22nd May 2010 at 7:45pm

Sergei Prokofiev Masa Tayama

Kabalevsky Overture ‘Colas Breugnon’  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.

Kabalevsky: Overture ‘Colas Breugnon’

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1
Movement 1

Movement 2

Movement 3

Prokofiev: ‘Romeo and Juliet’
Montagus and Capulets: Dance of the Knights

The Young Juliet

Scene

Madrigal

Minuet

Masks

Romeo and Juliet: Love Scene

Death of Tybalt

Romeo at Juliet’s Grave

Saturday 20th March 2010 at 7:45pm

Claude Debussy Emilien Hamel

Bridge ‘The Sea’ 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.

Saturday 23rd January 2010 at 7:45pm

Elgar: ‘In the South’

Strauss: ‘Four last Songs’
Frühling (Spring)

September

Beim Schlafengehen (Falling Asleep)

Im Abendrot (At sunset)

Dvořák: Symphony No.8
Allegro con brio

Adagio

Allegretto grazioso – Molto vivace

Allegro ma non troppo

Saturday 14th November 2009 at 7:45pm

Sir Edward Elgar Laura Samuel

Berlioz Overture to ‘Benvenuto Cellini’  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.

Berlioz – Overture to ‘Benvenuto Cellini’

Bruch – Violin Concerto

Wagner – Prelude and Liebestod from ‘Tristan and Isolde’  

Elgar – ‘Enigma’ variations

Sunday 14th June 2009