Winchmore String Orchestra: Concert in aid of New Hope Animal Sanctuary

YOUTH  FEST

As every concert-goer knows, high up on any list of great symphonic composers stands Felix Mendelssohn, whose huge output during his tragically short life includes five numbered symphonies, two of them – No 3 (the “Scottish”) and No 4 (the “Italian”) – among the most beloved in the orchestral repertoire.  But what about the dozen that he wrote in his early teens that do not figure on the roster of his numbered, “mature”, ones?

After Mozart, MENDELSSOHN is probably the most famous musical prodigy in classical history, with not only 12 completed symphonies but five operas, several concertos and numerous other pieces written before he was 15.  These, however, were meant for private concerts at his home in Berlin, where his family were part of the intellectual and cultural elite, and were not published or publicly performed until well after his death; only in fairly recent years have they begun to attract serious attention.

Unlike the later symphonies, they are written for strings, albeit with some other instruments occasionally added, and to distinguish them from the later ones they are known as “string sinfonias”.  In our next concert we showcase one of them, his String Sinfonia No 4 in C.  Juvenile the work may be in a strict sense, but it shows the influence of the classical greats he took as his models, especially Bach and Handel.

In the interest of fairness, we are also playing a youthful work by fellow-prodigy MOZART, his Divertimento in Bb K 137, though he produced this at the relatively advanced age - for him - of 16.  The word “divertimento” may be translated as “entertainment”, and this the piece certainly provides.

Youth is an underlying theme in our concert.  Danish composer Carl NIELSEN called his Little Suite, which he wrote when he was still a student, his “Opus 1”.  Though dating from nearly the end of his life, Benjamin BRITTEN’s Welcome Suite is an orchestration of part of a Welcome Ode for school choir and orchestra written for a visit by the late Queen to Ipswich during her Silver Jubilee in 1977.

There is also the well-known set of Romanian Folk Dances by the Hungarian composer, BARTÓK (who, incidentally, made his public début as a pianist at the age of 11), and a beguiling Lullaby by George GERSHWIN, written when he was a student, with tenderest youth obviously in mind. But grown-ups should not despair: the concert includes two items by the grand old man of Finnish music, SIBELIUS – an Impromptu that started life as a piece for piano, and his Romance Op 42.   

The customary raffle during the interval will be in support of New Hope Animal Sanctuary.