TIL Autumn Half Term

12
ENGLISH SCHOOLS’ ORCHESTRA
PERFORM IN THE PURCELL ROOM
Small is beautiful – that’s the key note
to this year’s English Schools’ Orchestra
concert (4 November, The Purcell Room,
South Bank). Expect a sell out as some
40 fine teenage musicians, supported by
the Navarra String Quartet, come
together as a unique, one-time Chamber
Orchestra. They’ll perform Richard
Strauss's Serenade, for Woodwind and
Horns, Elgar's Introduction and Allegro
for Strings, Beethoven’s Symphony No 7
and the Hebrides Overture, popularly
known as Fingal’s Cave. This
Mendelssohn piece, so evocative of
stormy tides, mirrors the touch of
turbulence surrounding this particular
ESO annual gala event which had
previously run legato and ripple free for
22 years.
Instrumental lessons are being
shelved in too many schools across the
country, and the English Schools’
Orchestra exists to redress the balance,
enabling talented young musicians, still
in full time education, to meet once a
year, enjoy a short burst of intense
rehearsal and make great music together.
But this autumn’s half-term dates shifted
unexpectedly, so that neither the usual
Hertfordshire rehearsal venue, nor the
iconic Cadogan Hall (previous home to
the full 90 strong ESO orchestra) were
free for the dates. Where two doors
closed however, The Purcell Room and
Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School
opened two more for the young people
and their many regular admirers,
including Dame Norma, Lady Major, wife
of the former Prime Minister and
biographer of Joan Sutherland.
Each member of The Navarra Quartet,
acclaimed for its ‘vivid sense of dramatic
expression’ will sit with their respective
instrumental section, to lend confidence
and play solo. Spectators may recognise
bars of Beethoven’s Seventh from the
movie The King’s Speech, and share the
soul spritzer this piece first provided in
1813, to a Vienna downcast by
Napoleon’s recent occupation. ‘This is
the piece I most look forward to playing’
says double bassist Elliott Simmonds.
‘It’s cool, exciting and action-packed.’
The 14 year old student from Alleyn’s
School Dulwich has been getting to
know the piece through Spotify and You
Tube and will enjoy polishing it (plus
playing ping pong in chill-out breaks)
with the friends he made on last year’s
rehearsal residential. For cellist Isabelle
Carnell, who is 16 and has just passed
Grade 8 with distinction, the stand-out
piece is the Hebrides Overture. ‘As I’ve
been preparing, I’ve visualised the
crashing water of Fingal’s Cave. The
wave seems a metaphor for the whole
piece’ says Isabelle who’s in Year 11 at
Cokethorpe School, Whitney. ‘With the
English Schools’ Orchestra you play
different music to a higher standard and
that’s how you grow to aspire.’
For tickets, telephone 020 3879 9555.
ANDREW ZOLINSKY EXPLORES
DEBUSSY AND JAPAN
Andrew Zolinsky marks the centenary
of the death of Debussy with a recital
exploring the composer’s fascination with
Eastern culture with a concert on Sunday
28 October (15.00) at St John’s Smith
Square. Alongside Debussy, Andrew
presents works by contemporary Japanese
composers which, in a recital of
fascinating juxtapositions, explore similar
aspects of space, time and spirituality.
Andrew says; ‘With the piano music
he wrote in the first fifteen years of the
twentieth century, Debussy changed the
sound of the piano forever. So many of
the composers writing for the piano after
this time (Messiaen, Stockhausen, to
name just two) would not have dared to
experiment with the wide range of
sound possibilities had Debussy not
explored the sonority of the instrument
with such imagination and courage. So
much of this new sound owes its
existence to his fascination with oriental
culture, in particular to Japanese prints
and the sound of the Javanese Gamelan.
It is this aspect of his art that I am
exploring in my programme. What
attracts me to any music and any
composer something individual, quirky,
original in the sound of their music. For
me, Debussy's music sounds like
nobody else's.’
For tickets to the performance,
telephone the St John’s Smith Square
box office: 020 7222 1061. Nearest tube
is Westminster, on the Jubilee Line.
Andrew Zolinsky.
T H I S I S L O N D O N M A G A Z I N E • T H I S I S L O N D O N O N L I N E