Description

One of the world’s greatest chamber orchestras, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields will visit Winchester cathedral for a programme featuring some of the world’s most sublime music. From Mozart and Beethoven to Vaughan Williams and a new piece from Errollyn Wallen CBE this evening of music-making promises to delight audiences and celebrate this internationally-renowned orchestra at its best.

Mozart’s Symphony no. 31 (the “Paris”) was written when the composer was just 22, with an unusually large instrumentation for its time, and features some of his most animated and spirited music.

Vaughan Williams’s timeless and ethereal Tallis Fantasia received its premiere in Gloucester Cathedral in 1910, and this wonderful piece retains its popularity today, regularly placing in the Top 5 of the listener-voted Classic FM Hall of Fame. A critic at the time described how “throughout its course one is never quite sure whether one is listening to something very old or very new… but that is just what makes this Fantasia so delightful to listen to; it cannot be assigned to a time or a school, but it is full of the visions which have haunted the seers of all times.” Given Beethoven’s prolific output, it is perhaps surprising that he only wrote one concerto for the most popular instrument of his time – the violin. Despite a challenging premiere in 1806, the work was revived in the mid-19th century and has since remained one of the most important and best-loved works in the repertoire.

The concerto is one of Beethoven’s most magnificent pieces, with deeply-felt melodies and a sensationally beautiful second movement resolving ultimately with a rousing and dramatic conclusion.

Errollyn Wallen CBE is one of the UK’s most respected composers and one of the top 20 most-performed living composers in the world. In this new work, written to mark the centenary of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields’ founder, Sir Neville Marriner, the virtuosity and individual musicianship of the players in the orchestra is celebrated to glorious effect.

Programme:

• Violin Concerto in D – Ludwig van Beethoven (soloist, Tomo Keller)
• New commission to mark the centenary of Sir Neville Marriner – Errollyn Wallen
• Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis – Ralph Vaughan Williams
• Symphony No.31 in D Major, “Paris” – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart