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Three British composers, all adept at writing for stage and film, stand
alongside a giant of German romanticism in this feast of great classics!
Vaughan Williams’ Overture ‘The Wasps’ was written for a
stage production of the play of that name by Aristophanes. The Overture
has remained a favourite with its buzzing imitation of wasps introducing
sweeping memorable tunes.
In 1936 Benjamin Britten was asked to write music for a documentary film and
chose to orchestrate five of the twelve songs written by Rossini. He
later adapted these slightly to create this delightful suite, ‘Soirées
Musicales’.
Our third English composer, William Walton does us a great service here by
bringing into the limelight the often overlooked viola! His Viola
Concerto was written in 1929 and premiered by a composer who also played the
viola, Paul Hindemith. We are very excited to welcome Shiry Rashkovsky to
play it for us.
The final work in this concert is the Symphony No. 1 by a composer who needs
no introduction – the great Johannes Brahms!
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