A Taste of the Mediterranean: MSO Concert 2 at Mote Hall, Maidstone on Saturday 28th November 2015

Please note: This concert is in the past and has already taken place.

A Taste of the Mediterranean

MSO Concert 2

Part of the MSO's 105th Season

Add to my Calendar 28-11-2015 19:30 28-11-2015 21:30 36 A Taste of the Mediterranean The 2nd concert in MSO's 105th Season has a distinctly Mediterranean feel. We begin with Richard Strauss' epic tone-poem Don Juan. The Don Juan legend originated in Renaissance-era Spain. Strauss's tone poem is based on Don Juans Ende, a play derived from an unfinished 1844 retelling of the tale by poet Nikolaus Lenau. Strauss reprinted three excerpts from the play in his score. In Lenau's rendering, Don Juan's promiscuity springs from his determination to find the ideal woman. Despairing of ever finding her, he ultimately surrenders to melancholy and wills his own death. Performances of the work last around sixteen minutes. The difficulty of the work makes excerpts from Don Juan a staple of orchestral audition lists for many instruments.   We then return breifly to England, where former BBC Young Musician of the Year, Laura van der Heijden entertains us with William Walton's Cello Concerto, the piece she won the BBC competition with back in 2012.   Next, we will hear music by the French Composer Albert Roussel - The Spider's Feast. This is music taken from the ballet of the same name. The ballet depicts insect life in a garden, evoked by the flute solo at the opening and close of the work, and where insects are trapped in the spider's web, but when the spider prepares to begin its feast, it in turn is killed by a praying mantis. The funeral procession of the mayfly concludes the work. The full ballet lasts approximately half an hour.   Finally, we travel to Italy with Edward Elgar, whose piece In The South was written during a Winter holiday with his family in the Italian town of Alassio, on the Italian Riviera. He strolled around during the visit, while buildings, landscape and history of the town provided him the sources of inspiration. He later recalled:   "Then in a flash, it all came to me - streams, flowers, hills; the distant snow mountains in one direction and the blue Mediterranean in the other; the conflict of the armies on that very spot long ago, where I now stood - the contrast of the ruin and the shepherd - and then, all of a sudden, I came back to reality. In that time I had composed the overture - the rest was merely writing it down."   Perhaps the best known part of the piece is the central serenade played by a solo viola. In July of the same year, Elgar took this section from the piece and fitted it to a poem by Shelley as a song under the title In Moonlight. Later he made several instrumental versions titled "Canto Popolare".   The piece is about 20 minutes long. The main descending theme is echoed throughout the sections of the orchestra all through the piece. The viola solo is of particular note due partly to its length, being on such an underused instrument, but also because of the contrast it creates with the rest of the piece which is very bold. There are large legato passages between the strings and horns, and the rest of the brass add tremendous excitement in the middle of the piece with loud chords separated by large intervals.   -----------------------------------------   THE SOLOIST   Laura van der Heijden is a British cellist. She won the 2012 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition.   Born in West Sussex, England, van der Heijden is the youngest daughter of a Dutch father and Swiss mother. Her musical studies began at age 4 on recorder, then piano at age 5 and cello at age 6. In 2005, she joined the junior department of the Royal College of Music, where she studied piano under Emily Jeffrey. Her first public performance was at age nine with Forest Row's Jupiter Chamber Orchestra. She has been a pupil with Leonid Gorokhov since 2008.   In 2010, van der Heijden won the Erster Preis mit Auszeichnung (full marks) and a special prize in the final of the Swiss National Youth Music Competition, which led to her performing the Boccherini Cello Concerto in G with the Zurich Kammer Orchestra at the Zurich Tonhalle in January 2011. She was also the 2011 winner of the Marjorie Humby competition at the Royal College of Music and was awarded the 2012 Director's Prize at RCM Junior Department. van der Heijden won the BBC Young Musician of the Year on 13 May 2012, where in the final round, she played William Walton's Cello Concerto with Kirill Karabits and the now Royal Northern Sinfonia, on a 1911 Celeste Farotti cello loaned to her by Gorokhov.   Van der Heijden performs on a 1935 cello by Galileo Arcellaschi and a 1987 cello by Colin Irving. She became an Ambassador for The Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts in January 2013. Mote Hall, Maidstone DD/MM/YYYY

Details

Mote Hall
Mote Avenue
Maidstone Leisure Centre
Maidstone
Kent
ME15 7SU
England

Saturday 28th November 2015
7:30 PM

Programme

Richard Strauss – Don Juan, Op.20
William Walton – Cello Concerto
Albert Roussel – Le festin de l’araignée, Op.17
Edward Elgar – Concert Overture 'In the South', Op.50

Performers

Laura van der Heijden – Cello
Brian Wright – Conductor

Maidstone Symphony Orchestra

Other concerts in this Series (+)

Programme Note

The 2nd concert in MSO's 105th Season has a distinctly Mediterranean feel. We begin with Richard Strauss' epic tone-poem Don Juan. The Don Juan legend originated in Renaissance-era Spain. Strauss's tone poem is based on Don Juans Ende, a play derived from an unfinished 1844 retelling of the tale by poet Nikolaus Lenau. Strauss reprinted three excerpts from the play in his score. In Lenau's rendering, Don Juan's promiscuity springs from his determination to find the ideal woman. Despairing of ever finding her, he ultimately surrenders to melancholy and wills his own death. Performances of the work last around sixteen minutes. The difficulty of the work makes excerpts from Don Juan a staple of orchestral audition lists for many instruments.

We then return breifly to England, where former BBC Young Musician of the Year, Laura van der Heijden entertains us with William Walton's Cello Concerto, the piece she won the BBC competition with back in 2012.

Next, we will hear music by the French Composer Albert Roussel - The Spider's Feast. This is music taken from the ballet of the same name. The ballet depicts insect life in a garden, evoked by the flute solo at the opening and close of the work, and where insects are trapped in the spider's web, but when the spider prepares to begin its feast, it in turn is killed by a praying mantis. The funeral procession of the mayfly concludes the work. The full ballet lasts approximately half an hour.

Finally, we travel to Italy with Edward Elgar, whose piece In The South was written during a Winter holiday with his family in the Italian town of Alassio, on the Italian Riviera. He strolled around during the visit, while buildings, landscape and history of the town provided him the sources of inspiration. He later recalled:

"Then in a flash, it all came to me - streams, flowers, hills; the distant snow mountains in one direction and the blue Mediterranean in the other; the conflict of the armies on that very spot long ago, where I now stood - the contrast of the ruin and the shepherd - and then, all of a sudden, I came back to reality. In that time I had composed the overture - the rest was merely writing it down."

Perhaps the best known part of the piece is the central serenade played by a solo viola. In July of the same year, Elgar took this section from the piece and fitted it to a poem by Shelley as a song under the title In Moonlight. Later he made several instrumental versions titled "Canto Popolare".

The piece is about 20 minutes long. The main descending theme is echoed throughout the sections of the orchestra all through the piece. The viola solo is of particular note due partly to its length, being on such an underused instrument, but also because of the contrast it creates with the rest of the piece which is very bold. There are large legato passages between the strings and horns, and the rest of the brass add tremendous excitement in the middle of the piece with loud chords separated by large intervals.

-----------------------------------------

THE SOLOIST

Laura van der Heijden is a British cellist. She won the 2012 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition.

Born in West Sussex, England, van der Heijden is the youngest daughter of a Dutch father and Swiss mother. Her musical studies began at age 4 on recorder, then piano at age 5 and cello at age 6. In 2005, she joined the junior department of the Royal College of Music, where she studied piano under Emily Jeffrey. Her first public performance was at age nine with Forest Row's Jupiter Chamber Orchestra. She has been a pupil with Leonid Gorokhov since 2008.

In 2010, van der Heijden won the Erster Preis mit Auszeichnung (full marks) and a special prize in the final of the Swiss National Youth Music Competition, which led to her performing the Boccherini Cello Concerto in G with the Zurich Kammer Orchestra at the Zurich Tonhalle in January 2011. She was also the 2011 winner of the Marjorie Humby competition at the Royal College of Music and was awarded the 2012 Director's Prize at RCM Junior Department. van der Heijden won the BBC Young Musician of the Year on 13 May 2012, where in the final round, she played William Walton's Cello Concerto with Kirill Karabits and the now Royal Northern Sinfonia, on a 1911 Celeste Farotti cello loaned to her by Gorokhov.

Van der Heijden performs on a 1935 cello by Galileo Arcellaschi and a 1987 cello by Colin Irving. She became an Ambassador for The Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts in January 2013.

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