Â鶹Éç

Â鶹Éç Philharmonic Orchestra
16 Sep 2016, MediaCityUK Salford
Previous Event
13:55 Fri 16 Sep 2016 Next Event

Â鶹Éç Philharmonic Studio Concerts Knussen, Elgar, Payne, Finzi & Britten

Â鶹Éç Philharmonic
Knussen, Elgar, Payne, Finzi & Britten
13:55 Fri 16 Sep 2016 Â鶹Éç Philharmonic Studio
Andrew Gourlay is joined by Tenor, Robin Tritschler, for an afternoon full of music from British composers
Andrew Gourlay is joined by Tenor, Robin Tritschler, for an afternoon full of music from British composers

Programme

Performers

Concert Information

Andrew Gourlay raises his baton to open today’s programme with Knussen's delightful
The Way to Castle Yonder.

Taken from fantasy opera, Higglety Pigglety Pop – a collaboration between Knussen and American author Maurice Sendak – this piece brings vividly coloured illustrations from page to note. Of his opera, Knusson said ‘Higglety is an evocation of the music I wanted to write [as a child] but didn’t know how’.

Continuing the thread of youth, the orchestra advance with Nursey Suite, a piece which Elgar, in his later years, ‘worked up’ from his youthful and unpublished compositions.

The afternoon continues with Payne’s Half-heard in the Stillness, a ten-minute orchestral tone-poem. Payne describes himself as ‘a passionate Elgarian’ and uses Elgar’s Memorial Chimes - written for the Loughborough Carillon - as his starting point.

The gestation of today’s penultimate piece, Finzi’s Farewell to Arms, took place over many years and reflects his enthusiasm for seventeenth-century poets – brought to life today by Tenor, Robin Tritschler.

Closing the programme is Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem, a powerful orchestral work inspired by the texts from the Requiem Mass and dedicated to the memory of Britten’s parents. With this dedication in mind, the final movement, ‘Requiem aeternam’ – meaning ‘eternal rest grant to them’ is particularly poignant.

This concert is a live broadcast for Â鶹Éç Radio 3.