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Programme Notes
I
STOURBRIDGE YOUTH SWING BAND
STRATHCLYDE SCHOOLS' SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Musical Director: Reg Reid Strike up the Band George Gershwin Blues Machine Sammy Nestico Flight to Nassau Birdland J. Zawil1ul, arr. J. Higgins The Band was formed in 1982 from schools and colleges in the Stourbridge area. Within a few months of formation they were invited to play in the Schools Prom at the Royal Albert Hall featuring Kenny Baker and played there again in 1986. The Band finished runners up in the BBC Big Band Competition (Junior Section) in the same year. In March 1987 and again this year the Band won the Boosey & Hawkes/TV Times Trophy for Top Band in the Country with Richard Williams winning the Individual Award for Top Soloist. Also this year the Band played in the Schools Prom at the Royal Hall Harrogate in April and in the National Festival of Music for Youth in July. The Band have chosen to play "Strike up the Band'; one of Gershwin's great show tunes, Sammy Nestico's "Blues Machine" as played by Count Basie and to close the programme, "Birdland", a big band arrangement of a recent popular hit.
Conductor: John Lubbock Symphony No. 4 in F minor (Finale) Allegro con Fuoco P. I. Tchaikovsky Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 Edward EIgar - "Land of Hope and Glory" Founded in 1977, the Strathclyde Schools' Symphony Orchestra is now considered one of the leading school symphony orchestras in Britain. The Orchestra's complement is normally around one hundred young musicians, conducted by a professional guest conductor. Membership of the Orchestra is open to young people who attend secondary schools in Strathclyde Region and each year some five hundred youngsters apply for a place. Preliminary auditions are held annually in schools throughout the region and the final selection is made at a second regional audition. In order to ensure that every pupil who wishes to join the Orchestra can attend rehearsals, bearing in mind the size of Strathclyde Region, rehearsals are normally restricted to a few weekends and a residential course in June. The Orchestra performs works from the standard classical symphonic repertoire and usually gives concerts in two of the six divisions of Strathclyde Region each year, as well as an annual concert in the City Hall, Glasgow. For a number of years it has been invited to give the concluding concert of the International Festival of Youth Orchestras which takes place in Edinburgh concurrently with the Edinburgh International Festival and received an invitation to give the concluding performance in the first Schools Prom Scotland on 20 June of this year as well as providing music for the opening of the XVII Assembly of European Municipalities and Regions held in Glasgow earlier that month.
The Orchestra is also beginning to earn a fine reputation abroad, having undertaken very successful tours in Germany (1982), Bavaria (1985), and Denmark (1987), the last tour concluding with a concert at the world-famous Tivoli in Copenhagen. In September 1988, the orchestra undertook a short European tour, visiting Belgium, Luxembourg and Nord Pas de Calais, France. A similar tour is already being planned for 1989. Symphony No. 4 in F minor (Finale) Allegro con Fuoco P. I. Tchaikovsky This symphony, composed in 1877-8, with its expressive melodies and exciting climaxes, reflects a difficult period in Tchaikovsky's life which included a short-Jived marriage, separation and attempted suicide coinciding with a relationship from afar (they never met) with M.adame Nadezhda von Meek who became his inspiration and patroness. Allegro con Fuoco is a very apt title for the finale, but the energetic opening is short-lived and a folk song for the woodwind is heard before a third theme is presented by the full orchestra. The development section looks again at the folk song. The sudden return of the motto theme from the first movement interrupts the broad, lively tune of the recapitulation and signals the beginning of a vigorous coda. Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 Edward EIgar - "Land of Hope and Glory" This march, now so firmly associated with the Last Night of the Proms, was composed in 1901. Referring to the tune in the trio section, Elgar said to one of his "Enigma" friends, "Dorabella'; "I've got a tune that will knock'em flat." The march was played at the London Promenade concert in the same year, conducted by Henry Wood. The march was indeed a knock-out, the audience was calling for three encores. With the addition of the Land of Hope and Glory words for the Coronation Ode of 1902, as suggested by King Edward VII, the march became a second national anthem.