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From London to St Petersburg Programme Thursday 19 November 2020 St George’s Hanover Square Firebird Friends & Benefactors Firebird Circle Professor Thomas Hale & John & rowena Tubby Nick & Debbie Barton Dr Sam Webster (Principal David & Susie Turner rory graham Trumpet) martin & alison Walshe Howard de Walden estates andrew Willey Limited Golden Firebird Friends Hyde Park Place estate The rt Hon Sir richard & Flying Sparks Charity Lady aikens Humphrey avon The morris-Venables robert & Jane Bell Dr David Daniels Charitable Foundation emily Bohill robert Venables QC & gary michael manning Clark Performance Partners morris Jeanie Hirsch Bärenreiter (UK) Limited The Williams Charitable Christopher Humphry Fazioli Pianoforti Trust Peadar o’mórdha FisherBroyles John Naulls gladwell & Patterson Benefactors of the Chair guy Palmer Knightsbridge Endowment Scheme Brian read Jaques Samuel Pianos michael & Helen Brown edwin & Harold robson London (Principal First Violin) Thomas Sharpe QC & Kings Place London anatoly Savin (Principal mrs Phillis Sharpe London Chamber music Second Violin) Stephen & Kate Wilson Society Philip & Suzy rowley middlesex University (Principal Cello) Silver Firebird Friends SJe arts oxford Jarrod Henderson & martin amherst-Lock mike Souch Sue Sinclair (Cello) Jim & olivia Cook St george’s Hanover Square Stephen & Susan Yarnold Tonia Leon Corbett-Weaver (Cello) Ness Cowdrey Trusts & Foundations David & eillis Baty Chris & Howard Fielding The Barton Trust (Principal Double Bass) maria gouveia Hyde Park Place estate Trevor & elizabeth gore allasonne Lewis Charity (Principal Oboe) martin melville The morris-Venables Ken Watters & robin Doreen munden Charitable Foundation Wilkinson (Principal Clarinet) James Saunders The Williams Charitable rory graham (Principal Horn) Nicholas Sokolow Trust Become a Firebird Friend at londonfirebird.com 2 Welcome ear Friends, In october we organised 31 years. Candidates are invited to submit a our first orchestral concert since the composition of up to 10 minutes in duration to UK’s first lockdown in march - with a compete for a cash prize of £500 and a live socially distanced audience and lots of safety performance of their work. Dmeasures. Tonight’s performance would not have been That programme had to be changed four possible without the unstinting support of our times since it was first scheduled around a year F r i ends & Benefactors Society. a g o ! I would like to thank each and every one of While making our final plans we also our donors who have provided support to the reschedule the concert we had to cancel in c h a rity. S e p tember to tonight's date in November. Since If you are not yet a member, do please then, we find ourselves in Lockdown Two! consider joining us as your support would be That means we can play but not perform to a e x t remely valuable to the orchestra - particularly live audience - so tonight we are doing just that. in these challenging times. Just join online by T h e concert will be filmed so that our supporters visiting out website at www.LondonFirebird.com. can enjoy watching it at home. Details of the rest of the concerts of the For the present time we are focusing on string, season are viewable there too. It is also now keyboard and percussion performances, avoiding possible to send a one-off donation via the site w i n d, brass and singing. too. We hope to balance this by increasing the We very much hope to see you again soon! involvement of wind, brass and singing in future meanwhile on behalf of everyone involved with p r o grammes. t h e orchestra, may I offer you our very best I hope you enjoy tonight’s inspiring and wishes for Christmas and a happy, healthy and contrasting repertoire - showcasing some of the prosperous year in 20201! w o nders of string playing. our Young Composer’s Competition is open Kindest regards, to current students or recent graduates of any Marc Corbett-Weaver U K conservatoire or university under the age of A r t istic Director & Chief Executive 3 Programme notes by Michael Manning Clark Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis he Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis is work for string orchestra composed and first performed at a festival in gloucester Cathedral in 1910. T Its British composer ralph Vaughan Williams was then aged 37 and had yet to achieve fame. gloucester Cathedral’s organist described the piece as a “queer, mad work by an odd fellow from Chelsea”. The work is based on a melody by the elizabethan english composer Thomas Tallis, which Williams had discovered when he was working on a commission to compile the 1906 The Fantasia was written in an age of musical edition of the english Hymnal. Tallis wrote it in antiquarianism, in which long-forgotten gems of 1567 as a hymn melody for the archbishop of early english music were being exhumed. This Canterbury. The words to which it were set, from fed into a type of nostalgia combined with a Psalm 2:1-2, were: patriotic optimism: a sense of drawing on the past in order to pave the way for a better future. “Why fumeth in fight the Gentile’s a reviewer for The Times wrote of the piece spite, in fury raging stout? following its premiere: Why taketh in hand the people “One is living in two centuries at once … It cannot be fond, vain things to bring about? assigned to a time or school but it is full of the visions The Kings arise, the Lords devise, which have haunted the seers of all times. ” in counsels met thereto, In structure the Fantasia is based on the against the Lord with false accord, elizabethan form of a ‘fantasy’, a composition against His Christ they go .” based on the style of improvisation, focusing on a central musical idea, with very flexible structure. Williams was agnostic himself but his inspiration The Tallis theme is played intact just three was often at its highest when composing on times throughout the work, appearing first after religious themes or in writing church music. The the dream-like opening chords. The rest consists historical connection with the renaissance and of elaborate variations the melody’s constituent elizabethan age was also significant. motives or fragments. 4 Arcangelo Corelli (1653 - 1713) Concerto grosso in D major, op. 6, No. 4 (Corelli) i Adagio - Allegro ii Adagio iii Vivace iv Allegro - Allegro rcangelo Corelli published a set of Twelve Concerti grossi, opus 6, in 1714. This is the fourth concerto in that set. a They were written for his own concerts, with Corelli playing in the concertino. a concerto grosso is a Baroque form that involves a dialogue between a small group of soloists and the rest of the orchestra. a joyful energy pervades the concerto. a majestic opening sets a festive tone. The ensuing a fiery allegro has a rich contrapuntal texture. The adagio slow movement, with its gently drooping melody, offers a lyrical contrast to the pomp of the piece’s opening. Corelli expands the concluding fast section Portrait by Hugh Howard (1697) into two movements, both of which are marked by transparent textures and a prevailing feeling of lightness. an elegant melody unfolds over a propulsive bass line in the vivace, and the final allegro is infused with the spirit of dance. 5 Gustav Holst (1874-1934) St Paul’s Suite, op 29, No 2 Like many contemporary english composers, Holst took inspiration from traditional British folk songs, and this influence is prominent in this Suite. The first movement is in the form of a jig which features a lively musical conversation between two melodies. The second movement continues with the fast pace, with the second violins playing the opening theme. This theme is passed around the orchestra until a solo viola interrupts. In the third movement, a i Jig: Vivace quartet of soloists come to the forefront. It ii Ostinato: Presto starts with a solo violin and viola, playing a iii Intermezzo: Andantes con moto duet, on top of pizzicato chords from the iv Finale (The Dargason): Allegro orchestra. Holst initially lulls the listener into a false sense of security, as the beginning of the ustav Holst was employed by St Paul’s movement is in the style of a typical slow girls’ School in Hammersmith, from movement of a suite. But there is increasing 1905 to 1934, as its head music energy and dynamics as the movement master. develops. g In 1912, a new music wing of the school The final movement features a melody in was opened, and Holst spent time in its rooms the style of a dargasan – a traditional english composing. The St Paul’s Suite was the first country dance. The theme is passed around the work that he wrote there, hence its name. whole orchestra. Later, Holst introduces an arranged for a string orchestra, Holst also arrangement of greensleeves, which the lower wrote extra parts for when a full orchestra was strings lead. The two melodies are blended playing at the school. together for the ending of the Suite. 6 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Serenade for Strings in C major, op 48 i Pezzo in forma di sonatina: Andante non troppo Allegro moderato ii Valse: Moderato — Tempo di valse iii Élégie: Larghetto elegiaco iv Finale (Tema russo): Andante — Allegro con spirito chaikovsky had rediscovered mozart’s composer’s best-loved melodies. magic Flute in the summer of 1880. The deeply felt third movement elegy He said that the Serenade, written begins with the same ascending scale that shortly after, was inspired by mozart’s graceful l a u nched the waltz tune.