New Bristol Sinfonia - Archive

©Rob Townley

New Bristol Sinfonia present an evening of thrilling music.

Tonight’s concert starts, appropriately enough, with a dazzling overture. Festive Overture was written by Dmitri Shostakovich after a last-minute request from the Bolshoi Theatre in 1954. They needed a suitably joyful piece with which to open celebrations of the 17th anniversary of the October Revolution and gave Shostakovich just a week’s notice. He wrote the piece in 2 days, and his friend Lebidinsk recalled that he wrote with amazing speed, cracking jokes throughout. The piece opens with a grand brass fanfare, and continues with bubbling wit before ending in a rousing coda. Lebidinsk commented that “I hurried down to the Theatre and I heard this brilliant effervescent work, with its vivacious energy spilling over like uncorked champagne.”

Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto in D major was dedicated to Alma Mahler, Gustav Mahler’s widow and was the first piece written after Korngold’s self-imposed hiatus from writing concert music. He had vowed to give up composing anything other than film music until Hilter was defeated, so as war ended in 1945 he set about writing the Violin Concerto. It borrows its themes from four of his movie scores and offers lush orchestration as well as quirky, exciting and virtuosic demands from the soloist.

Our next piece is La Boutique Fantasque, a spectacular ballet suite based on the idea of a toyshop in which all the toys come to life after closing time. Two of the dolls (who are in love, of course) are sold to different owners, so the other toys set about to rescue and reunite them, attacking the shop owner in the process. Respighi’s zestful arrangements for the ballet were based on pieces Rossini had put together in retirement and on its debut The Times recorded that “the audience was sent off its head with delight”.

Tonight’s final piece is Respighi’s Pines of Rome - without doubt one of his most colourful and popular works. Composed in 1924, the piece uses colourful orchestration with medieval plainchant and children’s songs to portray different scenes - children playing in the pine groves of the Villa Borghese; pine trees fringing the entrance to a catacomb; pine trees of the Janiculum in moonlight and finally, the pines of the Appian Way with triumphant armies returning to the Capitol at dawn.

Concert Details

Date: Saturday 20 March, 2010
Time: 7.30pm

Venue: Victoria Rooms, Clifton, Bristol. Click here for a map

Programme:

• Shostakovich – Festive Overture
• Korngold – Violin Concerto
• Resphigi/Rossini – La Boutique Fantasque
• Resphigi – Pines of Rome

Conductor: James Lowe
Leader: Mark Bunker
Violin: Julia Hwang, winner of the 2009 Rotary Club of Bristol Young Musicians' Competition

Tickets:
We recommend booking in advance with our Box Office: 07796 573869.
Cheques are accepted and there is no booking fee.
Pre-booked tickets will be posted to you or can be picked up at the door.

Most seats for this concert are numbered and can be reserved in advance. Click here to see a seating plan of the Victoria Rooms. The Box Office can advise on which seats are available and which have the best view.

The ticket prices are:

• £13 (£11 concessions) balcony
• £10 adults (£8 concessions) stalls
• £5 students
• £2 children/school parties

Pre-concert talk:
James will be presenting a pre-concert talk at 6.45pm. This is open to all and entry is free.