What’s On: New Forest Orchestra, St Thomas Church
THE music of Beethoven and Brahms will be celebrated in a New Forest Orchestra concert at St Thomas Church in Lymington.
The concert begins with Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, written not for Shakespeare’s play but one by Heinrich Joseph von Collin.
Coriolanus was a Roman patrician who led an attack on Rome after being banished as a troublemaker for calling out corruption. After a loud start there is an agitated passage perhaps suggesting the hero in military action interrupted by a lyrical theme representing pleas by his mother to abandon his actions. The two themes alternate until there is a quiet ending representing the death of Coriolanus.
Next is Brahms’ famous St Anthony Variations consists of two five-bar phrases gently announced by oboes, bassoons, horns and lower strings. This theme is followed by eight variations of different moods and a grand finale.
The first half finishes with Beethoven’s Leonore No 3 Overture, one of four he wrote for his only opera Fidelio. The story is that Leonore disguises herself as a man called Fidelio and becomes a guard in the prison where her husband Florestan is being unjustly held. In the end he is freed and her bravery applauded.
The second half will feature the epic Eroica Symphony – much bigger grander and longer than anything Beethoven had composed up to that point. He had contemplated suicide the previous year because of his increasing deafness but then resolved to rise above it and write music on a grander scale.
New Forest Orchestra chair Dr Alan Ford, said: “The orchestra, consisting of amateur and semi-professional local players, prides itself on being inclusive. We are very keen for aspiring players, or those returning to playing after a gap sometimes of many years, to be able to join us.
“We are lucky to have the inspirational leadership of experienced conductor Ieuan Davies. He occasionally writes simplified parts to allow less experienced players to participate.”
New Forest Orchestra will be at St Thomas Church on Saturday 20th July at 7.30pm. Tickets are £15 for adults in advance or on the door. Children are free.
For more information visit www.nforchestra.org
