Details
Thornden Hall
Winchester Road
Chandler's Ford
Southampton
SO53 2DW
England
Programme
Benjamin Britten – Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
Dmitry Shostakovich – Piano Concerto no.2 in F major, Op.102
Béla Bartók – Concerto for Orchestra, Sz.116
Performers
Ashok Gupta – piano
City of Southampton Orchestra
Programme Note
City of Southampton Orchestra open their 2016-17 season with an exciting concert featuring three twentieth-century masterpieces. Back by popular demand, we are delighted to welcome guest conductor Cayenna Ponchione.
Benjamin Britten wrote his Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra as an orchestral showpiece, with each section of the piece featuring a different instrument of the orchestra. The full orchestra combines in the thrilling finale. Inspired by a memorable tune originally composed by Henry Purcell, it will make a wonderful opening to our concert.
Next we welcome accomplished professional pianist Ashok Gupta to perform Shostakovich's Piano Concerto no. 2. One of the composer's most famous and popular pieces, its cheerful first and last movements contrast with the melancholic romance of the second movement.
After the interval, the orchestra will perform Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra. Composed in 1943 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, it is as the name suggests, designed to treat the entire orchestra as a soloist. In five movements, a wide variety of musical ideas are presented, fusing the Western classical tradition with the folk music of the composer's Hungarian homeland. Last performed by CSO more than twenty-five years ago, it is a true masterpiece which will be a rare delight for audience and players alike.