Description

Pianist, composer and broadcaster David Owen Norris will be joining the Waynflete’s own accompanist George Castle. David Owen Norris will be well known to BBC Radio 3 listeners and also as former presenter of BBC2 Chord of the Week programme, a regular feature of the Proms for six years. Constant Lambert’s Rio Grande, written in 1927, contains musical fireworks a-plenty. The double piano accompaniment is a brilliant showpiece of dazzling virtuosity and bravura, combining jazzy syncopation, ragtime and exotic Brazilian influences, with an element of spice from the percussion. The text of the work is a poem by Sacheverell Sitwell, which conjures up a vivid scene of a river in Brazil flowing through a town with a band playing and dancing in the streets. Brahms' romantic songs, the Liebeslieder (‘Love Song’) Waltzes will similarly be accompanied by both pianists, this time with four hands at one piano. Full of longing and regret, it is thought that the songs were composed by Brahms as a result of his frustrated love for pianist and composer Clara Schumann. The evening will draw to a close with Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story choral suite, with its iconic well-known tunes such as 'Tonight', 'America' and 'Somewhere' . The concert will be directed by the Waynflete Singers’ Musical Director Andrew Lumsden, currently Director of Music at Winchester Cathedral. His departure from Winchester Cathedral was recently announced, and this is a rare opportunity to see him in action with the Waynflete Singers in a more secular and intimate setting outside of the cathedral. Post concert drinks will be served and audience members are invited to enjoy the Warden's Garden.