Winchmore String Orchestra: Concert in aid of Duchenne Family Support Group

It’s a bit like driving a car and at the same time being a duty traffic cop monitoring everything else on the road. It was common in the 18th century but something of a specialist art today. What is this apparently self-contradictory art? Playing the solo part in a concerto while also conducting the orchestra.

Our next concert will offer an excellent demonstration, when our guest conductor, Martin Smith, will simultaneously direct the WSO and perform the demanding solo violin part in the 4th Brandenburg Concerto by J S BACH. Martin is no stranger to this challenge, however, with his distinguished record as a conductor, leader and soloist with numerous orchestral and chamber ensembles.

Alongside him on the podium for this work will be two other soloists, playing alto recorders – Adrienne Wilson and Jane McNeill. They also play the clarinet and flute respectively and will appear separately as soloists in the programme, Adrienne in the Adagio for clarinet and strings by the 19th-century German clarinettist and composer, Heinrich BAERMANN, and Jane in “Tambourin” – a sparkling show-piece for the flute by his French contemporary, François-Joseph GOSSEC. Along with these perhaps unfairly neglected composers, another rarely-heard 19th-century German, Robert VOLKMANN, will be represented by an emotionally-charged Serenade.

More familiar will be the Nocturne by BORODIN, originally a movement from a string quartet re-purposed for a song in a classic musical of the 1950s -- winning its 19th-century Russian composer a posthumous Tony award, incidentally -- and then further adapted for string orchestra. And many will recognise Two Melodies (Opus 53) by GRIEG, with their echoes of the folk music of his native Norway.

Finally, our programme offers the evergreen Capriol Suite by the maverick 20th-century English composer Peter WARLOCK. Please join us for this programme of music from three centuries and five countries which will be in aid of Duchenne Family Support Group.