WHAT’S ON
Music
Music July 5 PLYMOUTH CLARION CHOIR Plymstock United Reformed Church Held in the Day Room, for “The Good Companions.” July 15 MUSIC OF THE NIGHT CHORAL FOUNDATION Plymouth Methodist Central Hall Summer Concert. Tickets £10. July 21 PLYMOUTH JAZZ CLUB Tavistock Town Hall Graham’s Gentlemen of Jazz Details 01752 721179 or www. plymouth-jazz-club.org.uk. All welcome. July 29 EXON SINGERS St Eustachius Church, Tavistock Come and Sing day. Rachmaninov: Vespers. Tickets: Workshop and concert £25, workshop only £15. Music hire £3 or bring your own. July 30 LIVE MUSIC Devonport Park Bandstand Local brass bands, jazz, blues, celtic, folk, choirs and local soloists. Admission free. Aug 6 PLYMOUTH JAZZ CLUB Royal British Legion, Crownhill Karen Sharp with the Craig Milverton Trio. For details call 01752 721179 or visit www. plymouth-jazz-club.org.uk Aug 22 JAZZ CRUISE ON THE TAMAR TO CALSTOCK 4.30 pm from Commercial Wharf, Plymouth Featuring ‘Graham’s Gang’. Tickets £19.50 to include welcome drink. Pasties available at Calstock £3; order when booking Full info via 01752 721179 or www.plymouth-jazz-club.org.uk. Over 18s only. Aug 27 MUSIC IN THE PARK Devonport Park Bandstand Live music from 12 noon to 5pm local brass bands, jazz, blues, celtic, folk, choirs and local soloists. Admission free. Details from 01752 318087 or www. friendsofdevonportpark.co.uk
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Photo: Fotolia
Plymouth Symphony Orchestra’s summer concert features well-loved classical music. The concert is on June 21 at Plymouth Guildhall, starting at 7.30pm. The Orchestra will perform the same concert at Sterts Theatre, Liskeard three days before. The Orchestral Favourites include Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture, Finlandia by Sibelius and Beethoven’s Symphony No 6, known as the Pastoral, which is the main work of the programme. Beethoven completed the work in 1808 in Vienna and the movements are evocatively named with titles such as ‘Scene by the Brook’, ‘Thunderstorm’ and ‘Shepherd’s Song’. Although Beethoven spent much of his time in the city, he loved to be in the countryside and himself said ‘No one can love the country as much as I do. For surely woods, trees and rocks produce the echo which man desires to hear.’ The symphony offers a very different glimpse into the world of the more familiar Beethoven of the monumental, ferocious 5th Symphony. The meandering through the countryside with the lazy slow movement, the babbling brook and the storm – along with the rustic dances and beautiful bird calls, take us into another world. Beethoven himself actually indicates the bird calls in his score – the nightingale is the flute, the quail is the oboe and the two clarinets represent the cuckoo. The concert opens with Tchaikovsky’s fantasy overture Romeo and Juliet, inspired by the Shakespeare play of the same name. It’s central love theme is very familiar to us, as it is frequently used in romantic scenes from film and television. In traditional sonata form there are two dramatically contrasting themes between family strife and lovers’ passion which assures a fierce conflict. Khachaturian’s ballet Spartacus is based on the slave uprising which occurred in ancient Rome. The Adagio captivates the moment
The Plymouth Magazine June 2017
Orchestral classics at Guildhall concert when Spartacus frees his wife Phrygia and the lovers celebrate. This passionate melody later became one of our favourite TV themes – for the Onedin Line in the 1970s and 80s and for those who do not remember that – more recently in Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006). Sibelius’ tone poem Finlandia was composed in 1899 for a political demonstration in Helsinki and achieved sweeping popularity, national pride and personal fame for the composer – which surprised no one more than Sibelius. This colourful, richly scored ‘anthem to freedom’ with its snarling and thunderous opening also boasts one of music’s great melodies. The Plymouth Symphony Orchestra is one of the longest-established orchestras in the country and attracts many distinguished soloists, with Ralph Kirshbaum, Guy Johnston, Tasmin Little, Joanna MacGregor, Michael Petrov and Martin James Bartlett amongst the performers to play with the orchestra.
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For ticket information visit www.plymouthsymphony.co.uk