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Details
Phoenix Concert Hall - Fairfield Halls
Park Lane
Croydon
London
CR9 1DG
England
Programme
Richard Strauss – Festliches Präludium, Op.61
Jean Sibelius – Scènes historiques I, Op.25
Jean Sibelius – Finlandia, Op.26
~ Interval ~
William Walton – Belshazzar's Feast
Performers
Paul Sheehan – baritone
Russell Keable – Conductor
Kensington Symphony Orchestra
Epiphoni Consort
Programme Note
Kensington Symphony Orchestra, “one of the very best amateur groups in the country” (Classical Music magazine), is performing at this world-class venue for the first time.
The highlight will be Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast – a spectacular cantata for large orchestra, two brass bands, organ, chorus and baritone solo. It tells the tale of the Jews’ exile in Babylon, King Belshazzar’s great feast, the sinister “writing on the wall” and Belshazzar’s assassination, and the Jews’ rejoicing at their freedom. Walton was a rising young star when he wrote this “earthy portrayal of pagan revels, violent retribution and triumphant jubilation” in 1931; it is considered one of the finest pieces of English 20th century music.
Also in the programme are Sibelius’s ever-popular tone poem Finlandia (a patriotic protest against Russian domination and censorship) and his suite Scènes historiques. The programme opens with Richard Strauss’s Festliches Präludium - a fabulously rich work composed for the opening of the Vienna Konzerthaus in 1913.
