Summer Concert 2014
Sun, 29 Jun 2014
Celebrating the LMO's 60th Birthday!
Conductor - Bjorn Bantock
Leader - Tina Bowles
In support of the work of The National Autistic Society
The Concert Programme
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Night on a Bare Mountain - Modest Mussorgsky
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Japanese Suite - Gustav Holst
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Britten 100 - Perspectives - Richard Smith
Interval....
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Symphony No. 5 - Jean Sibelius
Performance Notes
Modest Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881) was one of the five great Russian composers knows as 'The Mighty Handful'. He was arguably the most original, though relatively neglected in his own time because his music was thought too modern and dissonant.Inspired by Russian legend, Mussorgsky composed a wild atmosphereic 'musical picture' - 'St John's eve on the Bare Mountain' on the theme of a witches' sabbath occurring on St John's Eve, which he completed on that very night, June 23, in 1867. Five years after his death, Rimsky-Korsakov arranged the piece into a version that gave it lasting fame, premiered in St Petersburg in 1886. Half a century later, the work obtained perhaps its greatest exposure through the Walt Disney animated film 'Fantasia'.
Gustav Holst (1874 - 1934) was a prolific English composer best-known for his orchestral suite 'The Planets'. Holst came from a long line of professional musicians and hoped to be a pianist but was prevented by neuritis in his right arm. He studied composing and trombone at the Royal College of Music. Unable to support himself by his compositions, he played trombone professionally and became a gifted teacher.
In the middle of composing 'The Planets', Holst wrote 'Japanese Suite' at the request of a Japanese dancer named Michio Ito who was appearing at the London Coliseum and wanted some dance music derived from traditional Japanese tunes. Holst didn't know any and it is said that Ito had to whistle several to him. Holst conducted the first performance of Japanese Suite in 1919
Britten 100 - Perspectives In the concert we premier this new work by Richard Smith, who writes:
In 2013 I decided to write a short piece for the LMO to mark Benjamin Britten's centenary. A visit to York Minster gave me the idea of portraying its architecture and serenity while reflecting its musical past in sections of the Requiem Mass.
The composition draws upon the techniques of the minimalist school and looks back to the Baroque style. The architecture is portrayed through the proportions of the Fibonacci series, a set of numbers where each is the sum of the preceding two, and these are worked into every element of the composition.
The piece lasts 150 seconds with five distinct sections, commencing from a Fibonacci numbered bar: funeral dirge, requiem aeternam, lacrymosa, dies irae and lux aeterna.
The final eight bars, the only passage written in a major key, make a rapid crescendo on rising arpeggio notes, imitating the Mannheim Rocket - an orchestral effect of the mid 18th century - and end triumphantly on a bright C major chord.
Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957) Finland's national music hero produced some of the greatest works in the period up to 1930; his best known being seven symphonies, Finlandia and the Karelia Suite.
Sibelius worked on his Symphony No. 5 during the turbulence into which his country was pitched y the First Wolrd War. The original version was premiered in 1915 in Helsinki. Later, the symphony underwent a series of revisions so radical that, when heard in 1919, it was virtually a different piece.
The revised work, which is played in this concert, is challenging and covers much emotional and musical ground. The first movement combines the first two movements of the original version into a wild succession of thematic ideas. The second contains a wistful theme with variations, and is a moment of calm between two very powerful outer movements. The finale unleashes the well-known 'swan theme' in the brass, inspired by the flight of 16 swans witnessed by Sibelius. Six great hammer blows of sound bring the piece to a dramatic conclusion.
The Concert Charity
The National Autistic Society (Registered charity No 269425) was founded over 50 years ago for people who have autism and their families. Our aim is to transform the understanding of autism and make sure everyone living with autism gets the support they need. Today we support over 700,000 people who have autism through expert care, support, advice and information, for example through national helplines, specialist schools, adult care and training for parents and professionals.Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how people commincate with, and relate to, others. It also affects how they make sense of the world around them. It is a spectrum condition, which means that, while all people with autism share certain difficulties, their condition will affect them in different ways. Some people with autism are able to live relatively independent lives but others may have accompanying learning disabilities and need a lifetime of specialist support.
The Concert Players
Conductor: Bjorn Bantock
First Violins
- Tina Bowles (Leader)
- Rachel Barbanel
- Steve Dobson
- Win Eyles
- Adrian Garfoot
- Natalie Kent
- Gwyn Rhydderch
- Richard Smith
- Cathy Fox (Principal)
- Lyndsay Hamley
- Michelle Jaques
- Sonya Kalyniak
- Jan Toporowski
- Alison Wyatt
- Ayesha Wynne
- Geoff Irwin (Principal)
- Tom Boswell
- Richard Clarembaux
- Nigel Franklin
- Thea Hoskin
- David Robinson (Principal)
- Sue Bird
- Hilary Evans
- Caroline Firman
- Olivia Kilmartin
- Christine Secombe
- Esther Arribas
- Clarissa Dann
- Francois Moreau
- Ingele Weekes
- Ian Bradford
- Joanna Bosanquet
- Graeme Scott
- Sumitra Lahiri
- Adrian Hall
- Lindsey Kaye
- Ian Merryweather
- Rosalind Hedley-Miller
- Hugh Whitfield
- Mike Fage
- Netia Lascelles
- Rachael O'Brien
- Julie Rooke
- Amy West
- Angela Dudley
- Emily Mitchell
- Rob Heath
- Sian Herlihy
- Paul Weaving
- Stuart Delve
- David Lascelles
- Sharon Moloney
- Bennet Smith
