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Sunday
4 October 2009 – Romantic Spectrum
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Roderick Dunk conductor
Nicola Benedetti violin
Copland
Fanfare for the Common Man
Schubert
Symphony No. 5
Glazunov
Violin Concerto
Shostakovich
Symphony No. 1
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Click on picture to find out more about Nicola Benedetti
What the
critics say
'Benedetti’s playing
is beautifully precise, her keen intonation has that glass-shattering
perfection, and she has a deliciously unaffected charm that simply
allows the music to kindle its own irresistible momentum.'
The Sunday
Times
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The stirring sound of Copland’s iconic Fanfare for the Common Man
launches the RTWSO’s 88th season. His visionary work starts the
musical journey encountering a galaxy of star soloists including Nicola
Benedetti.
Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 is one of the most engaging of early 19th
century symphonies. Fashioned on Haydn and Mozart, it displays an
emotional intensity that marks out the composer as the first great
Romantic.
At the other end of the scale, Glazunov’s Violin Concerto has the
hallmarks of the composer’s opulent late-Romantic style with beautiful
craftsmanship and rich orchestral colour. A work of immense
charm, it’s a tuneful and harmonically lush concerto. There are
cascades of highly brilliant passages, sardonic arpeggios and
successions of harmonics.
Symphony No. 1 by Shostakovich has influences of Tchaikovsky and
Mahler. This strikingly precocious and inventive work gives
prominence to the piano. It’s busy music of great economy, where
each note has a place in the overall plan.
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Sunday
1 November – Classically Crafted
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Christopher Adey conductor
Robert Plane clarinet
Elgar
Introduction and Allegro for Strings
Mozart
Clarinet Concerto
Beethoven
Symphony No. 2
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Click on picture to find out more about Robert Plane
What the
critics say
'Plane’s clarinet has an eloquent and
expressive voice. He can be clownish, rude, barracking and
sneering; he can weep, simper and smarm; he can joke, crackle and
cheer. He can also produce whispered tone from nothing, bite the
air with a chisel edge, roar low down like a didgeridoo or soar with
the pure white sound of a cathedral treble.’
The Times
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The distant singing of Welsh folk tunes supposedly inspired Elgar’s
Introduction and Allegro for Strings. Featuring a solo string
quartet accompanied by strings, this work is full of richly sonorous
melodies, virtuoso violin parts and an Allegro bristling with energy.
Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto is an undisputed masterpiece. His
deeply personal work gives the sensation of inexhaustible and
continuous melodic line. The tone is one of intimacy. The
liquid beauty of the clarinet writing is expressed in a structure that
is a paragon of classical balance and poise.
An unjustly neglected work, Symphony No. 2 by Beethoven is vigorous and
fiery. This essentially classical work is perhaps the sunniest of
his nine symphonies. But there are wilfully harsh contrasts going
through many keys, often punctuated by characteristic explosions.
From its serious moments to playful passages of humour, Beethoven sets
a new template in the way that he varies, grows and develops his music,
all ending in true majestic splendour.
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Sunday
6 December 2009 – Something Seasonal
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Neil Thomson conductor
Jack Gibbons piano
Rimsky-Korsakov
Suite, ‘The Snow Maiden’
Gershwin
Rhapsody in Blue
Vaughan Williams
Concerto Grosso for Strings
Bryan Kelly
Improvisations on Christmas Carols
Ernest Tomlinson
Fantasia on ‘Auld Lang Syne’
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Click on picture to find out more about Jack Gibbons
What the
critics say
‘There’s
no finer player of Gershwin around than Jack Gibbons.’
The Daily
Telegraph
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You can hear icicles etched by piccolo and violins in the introduction
of Rimsky-Korsakov’s enchanting Suite from his opera The Snow Maiden.
Mythological characters, real people, and those in-between are
identified musically in the tale about the clash of forces of nature.
Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue is packed full of sensual melodies that
swagger above slinky, slithering harmonies. This famous piece
abounds in syncopated rhythms and classical virtuosity, not forgetting
that notorious, bluesy glissando on clarinet with which the work
begins.
Vaughan Williams divides the strings into three sections based on
technical skill in his Concerto Grosso. Children from local
schools will join the RTWSO to play the unique piece including its
humorous Burlesca Ostinata.
Each movement of Bryan Kelly’s Improvisations is based on a well-known
carol. Like the ingredients of a Christmas cake, fine tunes are
mixed and decorated, ready to be enjoyed. British light music is
also showcased in Tomlinson’s seasonal arrangement.
Sponsored
by the RVW Society
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Sunday
7 February 2010 – Scottish Sounds
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Roderick Dunk conductor
Peter Moore trombone
Brahms
Serenade No. 2
Jacob
Trombone Concerto
Mendelssohn
Symphony No. 3 ‘Scottish’
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Click on picture to find out more about Peter Moore
What the
critics say
‘Peter Moore, aged just 12, took the coveted title against stiff
competition from talented young musicians around the UK to become the
youngest ever winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition.’
BBC
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The breadth of Brahms’s imagination is apparent in his Serenade No.
2. The sombre colouring is touched with national idioms.
The first movement opens with a Mozartian grace, but cross-rhythms and
woodwind 3rds and 6ths soon reveal the composer’s fingerprints.
Jacob wrote concertos for most of the common orchestral instruments.
His work for trombone includes a solo part that is flexible and agile,
as well as being powerful and regal. It sings a plaintive song in
the second movement in a register higher than an accompanying
flute. The march theme of the finale rounds off the concerto in
rousing style.
In ‘misty Scottish mood’, and inspired by the scenery, literature and
romance of Scotland, which he visited in 1829, Mendelssohn composed one
of his most characterful symphonies. Its haunting recurring motto came
to the young romantic composer in the ruined chapel of Holyrood Palace
and the scherzo draws ‘on an old Scottish bagpipe melody’.
Sponsored by Peggy
Bradley, a Patron of the Orchestra
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Sunday
7 March 2010 – Russian Roots
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Roderick Dunk conductor
Yevgeny Sudbin piano
Rimsky-Korsakov
Capriccio Espagnol
Borodin
In the Steppes of Central Asia
Shostakovich
Piano Concerto No. 2
Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 4
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Click on picture to find out more about Yevgeny Sudbin
What the
critics say
‘Yevgeny
Sudbin is already hailed as potentially one of the greatest pianists of
the 21st century.’
The Daily Telegraph
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Spanish melodies of dance character provided Rimsky-Korsakov with
fertile material for his brilliant showpiece, Capriccio Espagnol.
Unity is achieved by the lively main melody, Alborada, played by
varying instrumental combinations.
A concert favourite, Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia was
written as incidental music to illustrate Russian history. This tableau
depicted an Oriental caravan crossing the Steppes escorted by Russian
soldiers. From a simple melody, the music builds to create a sense of
height for the Steppes.
The vigour and simplicity of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 have
ensured its popularity. The piece is full of a light-hearted
energy with a brilliant tone and brisk tempos coupled with repeated
notes in the first and third movements.
After the break up of his marriage in 1877, Tchaikovsky sought solace
in composing and produced one of his best works. The harsh,
fanfare-like introduction is the essence of Symphony No. 4 which
symbolises a journey from darkness to light.
Sponsored
by The Friends of the RTWSO
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Sunday
11 April 2010 – The Civic Concert
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Neil Thomson conductor
Guy Johnston cello
Dvořák
Czech Suite
Schumann
Cello Concerto
Brahms
Symphony No. 2
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Click on picture to find out more about Guy Johnston
What the critics say
‘Guy Johnston gave a lucid performance that was coloured equally with
passion and intensity.’
The Strad
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The people and landscape of the country for which Dvořák had great
affection are richly celebrated in his Czech Suite. Three folk
dances are used and lilting themes bring to mind the countryside.
The style incorporates patterns of modulation, plus rhythmic devices
and articulation, to create a strong sense of nationalism in the
romantic idiom.
We celebrate the 200th anniversary of Schumann’s birth with his Cello
Concerto. It’s a sublime work that is full of lyrical beauty, as
well as flashes of fire. The graceful music flows like
dream-landscapes, even in the faster sections, creating a seamless
extended fantasy.
The pastoral mood of Brahms’s Second Symphony is closer in spirit to
Schubert’s symphonies than Beethoven’s. His radiant score is
bathed in a mellow glow of instrumental sound. Using instruments
in small ensembles and with luscious infilling of the strings, the work
makes an impression of warmth, spontaneity and total unification
building to one of the most affirmative endings in musical history.
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