The re-opening of the magnificent baroque church of St Paul in Deptford, after four years of extensive restoration, enabled St Paul's Sinfonia to launch its inaugural concert season in December 2004, bringing live high-quality classical music to the cultural scene of Lewisham and beyond.
Conducted by Andrew Morley, St Paul's Sinfonia consists of experienced orchestral players from across London. We perform monthly concerts at St Paul's Church, and are currently well into our sixth season. The Sinfonia draws its repertoire from a wide range of musical styles, from Baroque and Classical to Romantic and Modern, and aims to combine classics of the chamber orchestra repertoire with more unusual and challenging works.
Following on from St Paul's Sinfonia's highly successful Beethoven cycle during the 2008-9 season, this year we thought we would explore some more Beethoven repertoire for orchestra, both celebrated and lesser-known. Our season opens with one of the overtures that Beethoven wrote for his only opera Fidelio - Leonore No. 3.
Beethoven's concertos are represented by the beautiful Fourth Piano Concerto, where the serene piano lines gradually tame the aggression of the orchestra; the Violin Concerto, performed by the orchestra's leader, James Widden; and to round off the season, the Triple Concerto, which will be performed by the prize-winning Greenwich Trio.
On top of that, there are some of Beethoven's lighter works, such as the Ecossaise and Military March that preface Haydn's 'Military' Symphony in October; and also a rare chance to hear Beethoven's only ballet music, to 'The Creatures of Prometheus'.
As well as the Beethoven, however, there are opportunities to see the strings of the orchestra at their finest, in the January concert; to hear the virtuosity of the wind sections in May; to revisit some old favourites (Dvorak's 'New World' Symphony in October; Handel's Messiah on Good Friday; Brahms's Fourth Symphony in our final concert in June); to hear some neglected masterpieces (Martinu's Concerto-Rhapsody in March and Sibelius's Sixth Symphony in May); and to venture bravely where no concert-goer has been before (the world premieres from our composer-in-residence, Matt Rogers)!
We look forward to welcoming you to our 2009-10 season - it will be the best one yet!