Friday 20 March 2009 at 7.30 p.m.
ST PAUL'S WIND SOLOISTS
Johann Strauss - Overture 'Die Fledermaus'
Enescu - Dixtuor
Gounod - Petite Symphonie
Richard Strauss - Suite in B flat op. 4
Andrew Morley - conductor
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Having put the strings of St Paul's Sinfonia under the spotlight in January, we now turn to the wind section of the orchestra, who are performing a fascinating mix of the well-known and the unfamiliar. There are comparatively few works for an orchestral wind section, despite the great variety in sound-colour that the different instruments produce; often works that use exclusively wind instruments are designed for wind bands, with many more flutes, clarinets etc., than a standard orchestral line-up can produce.
Beginning with an arrangement of Johann Strauss's famous operetta overture, the programme continues with George Enescu's work for ten wind soloists. This late-Romantic work dates from the very earliest years of the twentieth century, and forms a wind-oriented counterpart to the string octet of a few years earlier.
Gounod's Petite Symphonie actually dates from only a couple of decades before the Enescu, but its style differs greatly from the Hungarian's work. The Dixtuor is an early work, with many of Enescu's greatest works yet to be composed; Gounod's work, one of the best-known nineteenth-century works for wind instruments alone, comes from the last years of the composer's life. Gounod was influenced all his life by the work of Bach, and while Enescu, one of the greatest violinists of his day, certainly revered Bach's example, the Dixtuor is heavily late-Romantic in outlook.
Finally, one of the greatest Romantics, writing for a combination that he used all his life. Richard Strauss had an early grounding in wind orchestral music from his father, who was principal horn in the Munich court orchestra, and who coached his son in orchestration, harmony and counterpoint, and other compositional necessities. His early Suite in B flat, for thirteen winds, is similar to the wind Serenade of about the same time, and the two works remain some of the best known from Strauss's early career.
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Tickets £10/£8 - available on the door before each concert
