Christmas Concert 2016

Sun, 11 Dec 2016

Conductor - Jonathan Hargeaves
Leader - Tina Bowles

With the Barnet Band - conductor Ian Brookman


In support of the C4WS Homeless Project www.C4WShomelessproject.org Registered Charity No 1121919

The Concert Programme

  • Lieutenant Kijé Concert Suite - Sergei Prokofiev

    • The birth of Kijé

    • Romance

    • Kijé's wedding

    • Troika

    • The burial of Kijé

  • O Little town of Bethlehem - Traditional, arranged by Tony Royse

  • Danse Macabre Poème Symphonique - Charles-Camille Saint-Saens - Soloist Tina Bowles

  • On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss - David Holsinger

  • God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Traditional, arranged by Ian Brookman

  • The Snowman Suite - Howard Blake

Interval.....

  • Children's Corner - Claude Debussy

  1. Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum

  2. Jimbo's Lullaby

  3. Serenade for the Doll

  4. The Snow is Dancing

  5. The Little Shepherd

  6. The Cakewalk

  • 1812 Overture - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

  • O Come All Ye Faithful - Traditional, arranged by John Hargreaves

 

Programme Notes

Lieutenant Kijé Concert Suite - Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953)

Written in 1934, Prokofiev originally wrote this piece as 15 minutes of sound track for a film of the same name but expanded it soon afterwards into this hugely popular orchestral suite. The story pokes fun at the royal court and its fear of admitting a mistake. As the result of a clerical error a non-existent Lt. Kijé assumes a life of his own. He becomes much decorated by Tsar Paul I and then has to be killed off when the Tsar demands to meet him. A lavish funeral with full military honours follows. The music is witty, melodious and accessible with instrumentation that includes a Cornet, Celeste, Harp, Sleigh Bells, a large percussion section and, unusually for the period, a Tenor Saxophone.
 

Danse Macabre - Charles-Camille Saint-Saens (1835 - 1921)

Saint-Saens was a French composer in the Romantic tradition. This piece was originally written in 1974 for voice and piano around a french poem by Cazalis based on an old superstition. At Halloween on the stroke of midnight, Death calls forth the dead on his violin and makes them dance. The harp plays the striking of midnight and the violin enters playing a dissonant tritone, known as ;the Devil in music'. Then at dawn comes the cockerel crow, played by the oboe, and the skeletons return to their graves.
 

 

On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss - David Holsinger (1945 - )

Holsinger is an American Composer who writes primarily for the Concert Band. This composition, from 1989, honours the retiring Principal of Shady Grove Christian Academy. It is a gentle and reflective piece based on the hymn 'It is well with my soul' by Horatio Spafford and Philip Bliss. Spafford wrote the words in 1873 after a series of tragedies in his life. Bliss wrote the melody in 1876 shortly before his own demise in a railway disaster.
 

The Snowman Suite - Howard Blake OBE (1938 - )

Blake is a British composer whose most famous composition, written in 1982, is the sound track for Raymond Briggs' charming Christmas classic about a boy who builds a Snowman that comes to life. The transcription for wind band is of the complete concert suite and includes the Music Box Dance, Motorbike Gallop, Dance of the Snowmen, and the unforgettable main theme Walking in the Air.
 

Children's Corner - Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)

Debussy wrote this tender collection of piano pieces in 1922 for his three year old daughter. Doctor Gradus ed Parnassum is an ironical play on the Clementi piano exercises that she will have to face - her feelings of bordeom and struggle. Jimbo's Lullaby refers to her toy elephant, by turns dreamy and clumsy, while the Serenade is a graceful dialogue with a beloved oriental doll. The Snow is Dancing is a featherlight descriptive piece in a melancholy mood. The Little Shepherd sits alone playing a dance on his pipe. The series ends with The Cakewalk which is the most entertaining and comical of the series. The golliwog is of its period, jazzy and high-kicking, dancing to win the cake for the best performance.
 

1812 Overture - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)

Tchaikovsky knocked-off the 1812 Overture in 1880 to celebrate Russia's defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Borodino. Overflowing with nationalistic sentiment, it opens with an Orthodox hymn and the Russian national anthem while La Marseillaise is clearly blown to smithereens. The piece was to be played in Moscow Central Square with church bells and thundering cannon. It was a wild success, which haunted the sensitive Tchaikovsky; he loathed the piece, calling it 'noisy and completely without artistic merit'.
 

The Concert Partner

The Barnet Band

The Barnet Band was formed in 1889 as a brass band and has been through several incarnations until becoming a wind band in 1983. This makes them one of Barnet's oldest musical organisations. The band plays at fetes, community events and bandstands during the summer and also give concerts for local charities. Barnet Band is a not-for-profit organisation which accepts new members without audition. Rehearsals are on Wednesdays at 7.45pm at East Barnet School, Chestnut Grove, East Barnet, EN4 8PU. To join the band, or book the band for an event, please contact the Band Secretary www.BarnetBand.org
 

Ian Brookman - Conductor of the Barnet Band

Ian studied music at Lancaster University and conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music. He founded the Lancaster New Music Group and conducted several works by Peter Maxwell Davies in the presence of the composer, and recorded a number of pieces by 'Les Six' French composers of the early 20th Century. He trained as a teacher in London while pursuing a busy conducting career. Currently Ian is conductor of the Camden Youth and Training Orchestras and, since January 2016, The Barnet Band.
 

The Concert Charity

C4WS Homeless Project ( www.C4WShomelessproject.org Registered Charity No 1121919) gives hospitality to and resettles homeless people during the winter months and offers other support services all year around. Resettlement is one of its strengths with the majority of its guests leaving for some form of stable accommodation.  Profits from the concert go to the York Rise shelter which is located in St Mary Brookfield's church hall. The parish donates the hall and heating, but the shelter depends on donations to fee the guests, provide hygiene essentials (such as toothbrushes) and do an enormous amount of laundry.
 

The Concert Players

Conductor: Jonathan Hargreaves

First Violins

  • Tina Bowles (Leader)
  • Rachel Barbanel
  • Mary Dentschuk
  • Steve Dobson
  • Adrian Garfoot
  • Loren O'Dair
  • Gwyn Rhydderch
  • Ayesha Wynne
Second Violins
  • Nichola Blakey (Principal)
  • Sonya Ashbury
  • Ian Brookman
  • Hannah Callcut
  • Jenny Glennon
  • Laura Kischkel
  • Sabrina Pathan
  • Mary Ruddy
  • Jan Toporowski
  • Raffaella Urbani
  • Gintare Zolubaite
Violas
  • Geoff Irwin (Principal)
  • Tom Boswell
  • Richard Clarembaux
  • Nigel Franklin
  • Netia Lascelles
  • Charlotte Lesforis
  • John Nicholls
Cellos
  • Laura Seddon (Principal)
  • Fiona Bell
  • Sue Bird
  • Hilary Evans
  • Olivia Kilmartin
  • Angie Laycock
  • Yasmin Mukhida
Double Basses
  • Jan Kiernan
  • Francois Moreau
  • Ingela Weekes
Flutes
  • Ian Bradford
  • Joanna Bosanquet
Piccolo
  • Mo Talukder
Oboes
  • Sumitra Lahiri
  • Adrian Hall
  • Margaret Thomas
Cor Anglais
  • Adrian Hall
Clarinets
  • Lindsey Kaye
  • Ian Merryweather
Tenor Saxophone
  • Sophie Goodwin
Bassoons
  • Rosalind Hedley-Miller
  • Louise Johnston
French Horns
  • Clare Hennessey
  • Susie Laker
  • Julie Rooke
  • Richard Slater
Trumpets
  • Patrick Dodds
  • Barney Samson
Cornets
  • Sam Berlinguet
  • Mike Docherty
Trombones
  • Rob Heath
  • Sian Herlihy
  • Paul Weaving
Tuba
  • Rory Wilson
Harp
  • Giovanna Reitano
Keyboard
  • David Lascelles
Timpani
  • Stuart Delve
Percussion
  • Nim DiRicci
  • John Holland
  • Sharon Moloney