Saturday 22 November 2008, 7.45pm
Princes Hall, Aldershot
01252 329155
Tickets: £10.00
Children £5.00
The opening concert of the 08/09 season features one of the major works of the symphonic repertoire: Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony, whose music is charged with emotion made all the more poignant by its association with the composer's untimely death in 1893. By contrast, the Schumann Conzertstück for 4 horns is a more unusual piece, written at the height of the composer's creativity. A virtuosic showpiece for the horn soloists, for many years this work was considered unplayable and it promises to be an exciting opening for the FSO season. The concert also includes "Forest Murmurs" from Act II of Wagner's opera, Siegfried and "Tam O'Shanter", Malcolm Arnold's tone poem based on verse by Burns.
Soloist: Michael Bailey (leader) (Horn Quartet)
Pupils of Richard Bissell, Principal Horn of the London Philharmonic Orchestra
Malcolm Arnold : Overture: Tam O'Shanter Link
Wagner : Forest Murmurs (from Act II of Siegfried)
Schumann : Conzertstuck in F for Four Horns Op 86
Tchaikovsky : Symphony No 6 (Pathetique) Link
Saturday 31 January 2009, 7.45pm
High Cross Church, Camberley
Tickets: £10.00
Children £5.00
Our first concert of the New Year combines baroque favourites - Bach's Suite No 2 in B minor and Handel's Water Music - with less well-known gems such as Bizet's Symphony in C. Written when the composer was just 17, the symphony foreshadows his later operatic masterpiece, "Carmen". Rossini's rousing overture to his comic opera, "The Italian Girl in Algiers" gets the concert off to an effervescent start and Delius' "Song before Sunrise" provides a characteristically dreamy interlude.
Soloist: Vivian Jones (Flute)
Principal Flute, Farnborough Symphony Orchestra
Rossini : Overture: "The Italian Girl in Algiers"
Bach : Suite No 2 in B minor Link
Delius : "A Song before Sunrise"
Handel : The Water Music
Bizet : Symphony in C Major Link
Saturday 28 March 2009, 7.45pm
High Cross Church, Camberley
Tickets: £10.00
Children £5.00
The FSO March concert features a return appearance by Melina Mandozzi, who delighted the audience with her performance of the Wieniawski Violin Concerto No 2 last season. This year she is performing the Korngold Violin Concerto, a richly scored work which borrows thematic material from the composer's movie scores and promises to be exciting for performers and audience alike. A Mozart symphony (the Linz symphony) provides a complete contrast. Although it was written in just four days prior to its premiere in Linz in 1783, it is a masterpiece of inspiration which is not to be missed. The Vaughan Williams overture "The Wasps" and the Ravel "Mother Goose Suite" complete a varied and exciting programme.
Soloist: Melina Mandozzi (Violin) Link
Vaughan Williams : Overture: "The Wasps" Link
Korngold : Violin Concerto in D Link
Ravel : Mother Goose Suite Link
Mozart : Symphony No 36 (Linz) Link
Saturday 13 June 2009, 7.45pm
Princes Hall, Aldershot
Tickets: £10.00
Children £5.00
The final concert of the season opens with the Wagnerian grandeur of his popular Prelude to Act 3 of Lohengrin. Bax's tone picture, "Tintagel", which follows evokes images of Cornish cliffs and Arthurian legend in what has been described as 'an iridescent shimmer of undulating strings, trilling woodwind and welling brass'! The Weber Clarinet Concerto No 1 takes us on a romantic and expressive journey of almost operatic proportions before the concert reaches a climax with Bartok's virtuosic Concerto for Orchestra, one of his most popular and accessible works and a fitting end to the FSO season.
Soloist: David Campbell (Clarinet) Link
Wagner : Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin
Bax : Tintagel Link
Weber : Clarinet Concerto No 1 in F minor Link
Bartok : Concerto for Orchestra Link