Details
Romsey Abbey
The Abbey
Romsey
Hampshire
SO51 8EP
England
Programme
Ethel Smyth – The Wreckers Overture
George Butterworth – A Shropshire Lad (Rhapsody for Full Orchestra)
Ralph Vaughan Williams – The Lark Ascending
Edward Elgar – Symphony no.2 in E flat major, Op.63
Performers
John Traill – Conductor
Alexandra Lomeiko – Violin
City of Southampton Orchestra
Programme Note
City of Southampton Orchestra invites you to join them for an evening of beautiful English music, in the ancient setting of Romsey Abbey.
Ethel Smyth was a pioneering female composer and suffragette. We will perform the exciting overture to her 1906 opera The Wreckers, depicting the wrecking of ships against a stormy Cornish coast. Her music surely deserves more recognition than it has received.
George Butterworth was a prodigious composing talent, and his orchestral rhapsody A Shrophire Lad (1911) shows his maturing pastoral style, with real orchestral beauty. Sadly, Butterworth died at the Somme in 1916 — we mark the centenary of his untimely death.
Ralph Vaughan Williams needs no introduction, as one of the most well-loved English composers of the twentieth century.The Lark Ascending (1921) is his most popular work, and we are delighted to welcome the talented violinist Alexandra Lomeiko to perform the famous solo.
In the second half, the orchestra will perform Edward Elgar’s Symphony no. 2. Premiered in 1911 and dedicated to Edward VII, it shows Elgar’s mastery of orchestral writing. Full of memorable tunes, including a “Spirit of Delight” opening theme, and an intensely moving slow movement, it promises to bring our concert to a stirring conclusion.