Friday 16 October 2009
Beethoven - Overture 'Leonore No. 3'
Sibelius - Violin Concerto
Dvorak - Symphony No. 9 'New World'
Friday 20 November 2009
Beethoven - Ecossaise and Military March
Haydn - Symphony No. 100 'Military'
Hummel - Trumpet Concerto
Prokofiev - Symphony No. 1 'Classical'
Friday 18 December 2009
Mozart - Symphony No. 31 'Paris'
Matt Rogers - Horn Concerto
Bizet - Symphony in C
Friday 15 January 2010
Gorecki - Three Pieces in Olden Style
John Woolrich - Ulysses Awakes
Stravinsky - Apollon Musagete
Tchaikovsky - Serenade for Strings
Friday 26 February 2010
J Strauss - Overture 'Die Fledermaus'
Beethoven - Violin Concerto
Schumann - Symphony No. 4
Friday 19 March 2010
Haydn - Symphony No. 90
Elena Firsova - Autumn Music
Beethoven - Creatures of Prometheus
Good Friday (2 April 2010)
Handel - Messiah
Friday 16 April 2010
Beethoven - Overture 'Zur Namensfeier'
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 4
Matt Rogers - New work
Schubert - Symphony No. 5
Friday 21 May 2010
Stravinsky - Symphonies of Wind Instruments
Chaminade - Concertino
Stravinsky - Danses Concertantes
Sibelius - Symphony No. 6
Friday 18 June 2010
Rossini - Overture 'William Tell'
Matt Rogers - New work
Beethoven - Triple Concerto
Brahms - Symphony No. 4
Friday 26 February 2010 at 7.30 p.m.
J Strauss - Overture 'Die Fledermaus'
Beethoven - Violin Concerto
Schumann - Symphony No. 4
James Widden - violin
Andrew Morley - conductor
Our February concert (slightly later in the month to allow for the beginning of Lent) continues our exploration of Beethoven's 'non-symphonic' works for orchestra. James Widden, the leader of St Paul's Sinfonia, steps out of the leader's chair to perform one of the greatest violin concertos in the repertoire. Beethoven's Violin Concerto was as radical and strange in its day as any contemporary composition might seem to us now. With a first movement that begins with four strokes from a solo timpani, and lasts about as long as an entire Mozart concerto, it did not necessarily please its audience at the first performance (although as Beethoven had only put the finishing touches to the work a few days beforehand, and the soloist was virtually sight-reading, the performance might not have been totally flawless!). These days, however, it is one of the central keystones of any violinist's repertoire, and recognised as a supreme masterpiece.
Johann Strauss's overture to his comic opera Die Fledermaus gets the concert off to a rollicking beginning, and the second half of the concert is occupied by Schumann's last symphony. This was written in 1841 as his Second Symphony, but withdrawn and extensively revised until 1853, when it was finally presented to the public in Dusseldorf, where Schumann was municipal music director. The symphony owes a great deal to Liszt's idea of the symphonic poem. Although the work is titled 'Symphony' and contains the standard four movements, the music is entirely based on a small number of themes, and Schumann directed that the movements should all be played without interruption. The exuberance of the main themes will bring this concert to a barnstorming close!
Tickets £10/£8 - available on the door from 7.00 p.m.