CONCERTS

Programme
Journeys of Discovery: Ecstasy
Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet (excerpts)
Ravel Piano Concerto in G
Wagner Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and Liebestod
Scriabin The Poem of Ecstasy

A programme that celebrates music as the supreme language of longing and ecstasy.

These are works that operate at the edges of our experience: where fantasy meets myth, the soul escapes its earthly bounds, and where the passion of young love consumes all before it.

To capture such ecstatic states requires a special gift. Few composers can stretch a languorous melody over endlessly twisting chords like Wagner or Prokofiev, or suspend time like Ravel, or summon up a trippy universe like Scriabin.

Prokofiev and Wagner give new life to the tales of star-crossed lovers, whether Romeo and Juliet or Tristan and Isolde.  Sriabin then takes Wagner’s theme of transfiguration to the point of full orchestral explosion in his Poem of Ecstasy. ‘Like a bath of ice, cocaine and rainbows’ was how Henry Miller described it.

Ravel offers a moment to step back from the emotional fray with his piano concerto, capturing the innocent excitement and wonder of a child. The simple allure of the music belies much sophistication.  In the case of the slow movement, where time seems to stop, the exquisite balancing of parts brought the composer ‘to the edge of despair’. He persevered, and the result was perfection.

Programme
Journeys of Discovery: Discovery
Mahler Symphony No.2, ‘Resurrection’

The thrill and sheer emotional impact of hearing this symphony live never diminishes: from the paroxysms of death to the affirmation of the life hereafter.

Mahler’s ode to life may end in glory, but the route there is full of twists and turns. Burlesque folk tunes sit alongside funeral marches, gentle nocturnes alongside storms. In Mahler’s deft hands, what might otherwise be jarring juxtapositions become vital pieces of the overall jigsaw. His Second Symphony is a panorama of life, death and resurrection, the musical equivalent of a vast Michelangelo mural.

With the glorious choral finale, Mahler provides his own unique response to the challenge set by Beethoven in his Ninth Symphony: how to bring voices into the symphonic ideal. Having been through the twisting journey, we find ourselves, as Mahler wrote in his own programme notes, in a place where there is ‘no judgement… no punishment and no reward. Just an overwhelming love illuminates our being. We know, and are.’

This concert has been rescheduled from from Wed 3 March 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Programme
Journeys of Discovery: Destiny
Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Elgar Cello Concerto
Tchaikovsky Manfred Symphony

Dukas and Tchaikovsky spirit us away into worlds of sorcerers and ghosts, while Elgar’s bittersweet concerto grounds us in the fragility of life.

Right from jaunty trio of bassoons that dance the first theme of Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Dukas offers us a masterclass in orchestral colour. Each episode of Goethe’s ballad is imagined in playful detail, from the march of the brooms to the raucous mayhem that ensues.

Elgar’s concerto brings us back to the somber realities of life. Part lament for the First World War, and written in the autumn of his life, it yearns for a simpler, untainted past. It is a moment of contemplation in an otherwise energetic programme.

The writer Harold Schonberg once described Tchaikovsky’s music being ‘as emotional as a scream from a window on a dark night.’ His Manfred Symphony is a perfect example. In Byron’s dramatic poem and ghost story, Manfred is a man tormented by guilt and remorse who uses the dark arts to summon spirits to help him forget his past and escape his fate.

Tchaikovsky’s fateful music makes the perfect partner for Manfred’s travails while also delighting in his escapes into fantasy. The work contains both the lightest, most impressionistic moments and the loudest climax he ever wrote.

Programme
Journeys of Discovery: Dreams
Mahler Symphony No.3

Riotous, hallucinatory, extraordinary: Mahler’s Third Symphony knows no bounds, taking us from the smallest flower to the mystery of divine love.

Mahler’s famous quote about ‘embracing the world’ in his symphonies finds its fullest expression in this, his longest symphony. In six movements he charts the evolution of nature and mankind. The elemental power of summer is set against the delicacy of the natural world. And the dark night of the soul is broken by the sounds of angels and a ‘great summons’ to love more deeply than ever before.

A symphony filled with music of life-enhancing physicality and breathtaking melodic beauty, it is a story of such breadth and ambition that only Mahler could have dreamed of it, let alone write it.

This concert has been rescheduled from from Thu 8 April 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Programme
Journeys of Discovery: Psychedelia
Jennifer Higdon blue cathedral
Prokofiev Violin Concerto No.2
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique

Dukas and Tchaikovsky spirit us away into worlds of sorcerers and ghosts, while Elgar’s bittersweet concerto grounds us in the fragility of life.

Right from jaunty trio of bassoons that dance the first theme of Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Dukas offers us a masterclass in orchestral colour. Each episode of Goethe’s ballad is imagined in playful detail, from the march of the brooms to the raucous mayhem that ensues.

Elgar’s concerto brings us back to the somber realities of life. Part lament for the First World War, and written in the autumn of his life, it yearns for a simpler, untainted past. It is a moment of contemplation in an otherwise energetic programme.

The writer Harold Schonberg once described Tchaikovsky’s music being ‘as emotional as a scream from a window on a dark night.’ His Manfred Symphony is a perfect example. In Byron’s dramatic poem and ghost story, Manfred is a man tormented by guilt and remorse who uses the dark arts to summon spirits to help him forget his past and escape his fate.

Tchaikovsky’s fateful music makes the perfect partner for Manfred’s travails while also delighting in his escapes into fantasy. The work contains both the lightest, most impressionistic moments and the loudest climax he ever wrote.

Programme
Journeys of Discovery: Confict
chaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1
Shostakovich Symphony No.8

chaikovsky’s effusive concerto is paired with a symphony that pulls no punches.

Tchaikovsky laboured long and hard on his First Piano Concerto, revising it three times. The result was a work that has stood the test of time, shooting its arrow direct to the heart. All sentiments are there: fury, serenity, joy, and – of course – passion.

Shostakovich’s response to the unfathomable losses of the Second World War was to write a work that did not shy away from the ugliness and chaos of the indiscriminate suffering that had been unleashed. As is so often the case with his music, listening to the Eighth Symphony offers a catharsis, moving from unrelenting pressure to finding final release.

‘All that is dark and evil rots away, and beauty triumphs,’ wrote the composer. And yet the hallmark of Shostakovich is his ambiguity. After the pain and suffering, can anything ever be the same again?