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Details
Great Hall - Reading University
27 London Rd
Reading
Berkshire
RG1 5AE
England
Tickets
Prices: Adults £20 Students & under 18s £5
Booking line: [email protected] tel. 07977 050265
Book Tickets
Programme
Arnold Bax – November Woods
Doreen Carwithen – Concerto for Piano and Strings
~ Interval ~
Arthur Bliss – Checkmate Suite
Performers
Philip Ellis – Conductor
Anita D'Attellis – piano
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
The final orchestral concert of the present season takes place at the Great Hall, Reading University on Sunday 28th June at 4.30pm.
A fascinating programme of music from English composers written in the first half of the twentieth century.
We begin with Sir Arnold Bax’s brooding tone poem, November Woods, a piece completed in 1917 against the backdrop of the First World War. Born in London, Bax developed an interest in Ireland and Celtic culture during his early life and the piece may also be inspired by the aftermath of the Easter Rising in Dublin. Bax himself denied that the piece was programmatic but it nevertheless conjures an autumnal landscape influenced by the Irish countryside. Its harmonic language is late-Romantic but highly individual, with frequent surges of violence followed by retreats of intensity.
Henley based pianist Anita D'Attellis then joins us for Doreen Carwithen’s charming and lively Concerto for Piano and Strings. Carwithen (1922-2003) was - as evidenced by the concerto - an accomplished pianist herself, but is perhaps best known for writing the scores for over 30 films during the 1950s. The concerto is compact, direct and rhythmically alert, combining clarity of form with a distinctive lyrical voice. We are grateful to the William Alwyn Foundation (Alwyn was Carwithen’s husband) for the generous support of this performance.
We close with Checkmate Suite, by Sir Arthur Bliss. Inspired by a dramatic confrontation between opposing chess pieces, the ballet was first performed in 1937 with the celebrated ballerina Margot Fonteyn in the cast. Each movement of the suite - reflecting the nature of the chess pieces - has a sharply defined personality and, coupled with Bliss's brilliant orchestration, the suite reflects the themes of strategy, inevitability and ultimately defeat.
This performance will be further enhanced with projected slides taken from the ballet.
