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Orchestral notes THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ALDERLEY EDGE ORCHESTRA ISSUE 15 MARCH 2014

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ALDERLEY EDGE INSTITUTE TRUST

Welcome back to pianist Simon Conning which were considered carefully by the Committee before the final programme was assembled. Once again, we have been able to line up an outstanding group of soloists for next season.

IMON CONNING will be making his third visit on 17th May 2014 to join us for a performance of Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto. Simon has been busy over the past year. He now has a recording deal with Meridian Records in London, for whom he has recorded Muzio Clementi piano sonatas as his first release. He commenced his studies with Marjorie Kelly in Macclesfield, then continued at the Royal College of Music’s Junior Department with Marjorie Clementi. He later studied at the Royal College of Music in London with Yu Chun Yee. Simon’s involvement in Musical Theatre as keyboardist and Musical Director has seen him collaborate with many established artists on diverse productions in Europe and throughout the UK

LUCY ARCH

but mostly in London’s West End.

Our 2014-15 Season

ULL details of our forthcoming season are given below. As always, we should like to thank players for the wide-ranging list of suggested works, all of

UCY ARCH will be playing the Elgar Cello Concerto in our concert on 22nd November. Lucy Arch started playing the cello at the age of 7 and currently studies at the Royal Northern College of Music with Christopher Hoyle and Hannah Roberts. She played for several years in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, performing at major venues all over the UK under eminent conductors. Lucy has a keen interest in chamber music, twice winning the

Saturday, 22nd November 2014

Saturday, 24th January 2015

Saturday, 7th March 2015

Saturday, 16th May 2015

DVORAK Concert Overture: In Nature’s Realm Op 91

WORKSHOP

BEETHOVEN Overture: Leonora No 3

WEBER Overture: Der Freischutz

R STRAUSS Horn Concerto No 1 in E flat Soloist: Angela Barnes

MENDELSSOHN Piano Concerto No 1 in G minor Soloist: Natalia Strelchenko

R STRAUSS Serenade for Wind, Op 7

SIBELIUS Suite: Karelia

HAYDN Symphony No 100in G 'Military'

MOZART Symphony No 35 in D 'Haffner'

Venue: Alderley Edge Methodist Church at 7.30 pm

ELGAR Cello Concerto in E minor, Op 85 Soloist: Lucy Arch BORODIN Symphony No 2 in B minor

MAHLER Symphony No 5 Conductor: Timothy Kendal

Venue: Alderley Edge Methodist Church at 7.30 pm

Venue: Honford Hall, Handforth 9.30 am to 5.00 pm

Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

ANGELA BARNES

Lucy Arch ensemble prize at Junior RNCM, and performing the Schumann Piano Quartet at the Wigmore Hall. This year her string quartet, The Clara String Quartet, have won the Hirsch Prize for the best performance of a Beethoven Quartet and have just returned from a course in Germany where they represented the RNCM . Solo performances have included the Schumann concerto at the RNCM, and several recitals. Lucy is an experienced orchestral player, leading a wide range of the classical, romantic and 20th century repertoire with RNCM chamber, symphony and classical orchestras, as well as many others. This year she has undertaken work with the Royal

NGELA BARNES will obe omaking a welcome return visit on 7th March 2015 as soloist in Richard Strauss’s First Horn Concerto. It is now some 15 years since Angela – then at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester – played a Mozart horn concerto with the orchestra. In January 2005, at the age of 21, Angela was appointed second horn of the London Symphony Orchestra, becoming the first female member of the orchestra’s brass section in the orchestra’s hundred-year history. She has worked regularly with most of the major British orchestras, appearing as a guest principal with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Angela’s career combines orchestral, solo and chamber music playing. As well as featuring in the second instalment of the Cala Records ‘‘London Horn Sound’’ series, she has also

recently recorded Britten’s Canticle for Tenor, Horn and Piano, with tenor Allan Clayton, as part of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme. Angela, from Rossendale, Lancashire, began horn lessons with her mother at the age of eight, before entering Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester, in 1994 to study with Elizabeth Davis. She then went on to study with Hugh Seenan, Richard Bissill,

Angela Barnes

How much do YOU know about Alexander Borodin?

ROBABLY the answer is “not very much”, apart perhaps from the fact that he was a Russian chemist who only composed music in his spare time. But did you know that he was the illegitimate son of a Russian prince? That his research work on polymers was some of the finest undertaken in the 19th century? That he reserved his finest music for his pianist wife Ekaterina Protopopova to whom he had a long and happy marriage? That he lived life to the full but died at a masked ball at the early age of only 53? And musically, did you know that the his Second Symphony – which we’ll be playing in our concert on 22nd November – is unique in starting with a pause on its very first note; and its third movement is the only piece of 19th century classical music scored with a time signature of 1/1? You can learn more about Borodin and his Second Symphony in a fascinating ‘Discovering Music’ presentation by Stephen Johnson with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra on www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00glzhv.

She was also honoured to perform in Memphis, Tennessee during the summer of 2013 as a Featured Soloist at the 45th annual symposium of the International Horn Society.

NATALIA STRELCHENKO

Natalia Strelchenko Jeffrey Bryant and Jonathan Lipton at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, from where she graduated with a First Class Honours degree in July 2005. Angela has given numerous solo and chamber music performances, and was a member of both the National Youth Orchestra and the European Union Youth Orchestra. In 2002, she won both the Liverpool Young Musician competition and the Brass section of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, which saw her perform Richard Strauss’ Second Horn Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the Barbican Hall, London, as part of the Concerto Final, which was broadcast live on BBC television and radio. Highlights of recent seasons include performances of Schumann’s Konzertstuck for Four Horns and orchestra with the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall (broadcast on BBC Radio 3), and of Brahms’ Horn Trio with pianist Martin Roscoe and violinist Nicholas Wright as part of the Ribble Valley International Piano Week.

HOSE of you attended the ‘Planets’ workshop in January will remember the virtuosity of pianist Natalia who filled in innumerable parts on the keyboard. We now welcome her back in a more conventional role: to play Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto in our concert on 16th May 2015. Natalia Strelchenko is a Norwegian pianist of Russian origin and considered to be one of the country’s most renowned solo pianists of international calibre. She made her debut at age 12 with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra Natalia graduated from Saint Petersburg State Conservatoire and Norwegian Academy of Music. She has given many international solo recitals including performances of Twelve Transcendental Etudes by Franz Liszt at New York’s Carnegie Hall (2008) and solo recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall. Her London recitals elicited a rare five-star review from The Independent. Natalia is also a musicological researcher in the area of historical piano techniques and has been awarded a research degree from Norway’s leading music academy. Public exposure includes eleven CDs, essays and articles, and ongoing TV and Radio broadcasts in around the world.

OUR NEXT WORKSHOP

E received many useful suggestions for the 2015 workshop. Eventually, and after further consultation, the choice was Mahler’s Fifth Symphony and we are sure it will prove a fascinating and worthwhile challenge for all sections of the orchestra. Composed in 1901/2, it’s a massive work, over an hour in length. It’s scored for four flutes, three oboes , three clarinets, three bassoons, six horns, three trombones, tuba, percussion and strings. The fourth movement is arguably Mahler's most famous single piece of music, and is the most frequently performed extract from Mahler’s works. It is perhaps best known for its use in the 1971 Luchino Visconti film Death in Venice.

The Children’s Society

E have been approached by The Children’s Society who have asked if we could help them with their fundraising. The Children’s Society is a longestablished charity (set up in 1881) which runs over 36 children’s centre around the country and works in association with 40 local authorities to help children of all faiths and none, including children at risk on the streets, disabled children, young refugees, young carers or those within the youth justice system. We have agreed to help them to promote this good cause at our November concert, when they will have a display stand in the foyer and accept donations from concert-goers.

The Alderley Edge Festival

HE Alderley Edge Festival is one of the longest established and most successful festivals of its kind in the country. Our own orchestra has historic links with the Festival which date back to 1922 when, according to The Alderley Edge Advertiser “a meeting of the Alderley Edge Musical Festival committee has taken place to discuss the formation of an Orchestra. It reported that Mr WO West (organist of St Philip’s Church, Alderley Edge) has consented to conduct. Weekly rehearsals will begin in the autumn.” We have recently held meetings with the Alderley Edge Festival to re-affirm our links to the benefit of both organisations. We will advertise each other’s activities in our programmes and Festival brochures (see below), and also have links beetween our respective websites. We shall be exploring other ways of working together in the months ahead.

The 2014 Alderley Edge Festival will be held from Tuesday, 6th May to Saturday, 10th May 2014. For full details see www.alderleyedgefestival.com.

Conductors in 2014/15

EMBERS of the orchestra will be aware from earlier discussions of Tim Kendal’s wish to step down his conducting commitments after 30 years on the rostrum. We therefore invited our President Richard Howarth to conduct the March 2014 concert – the first professional conductor in the orchestra’s long history. Thanks also to a wonderful performance of Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending, the concert was an outstanding success with a virtually capacity audience. Your committee will be meeting on 19th May to discuss conducting arrangements for the 2014-15 season. In terms of the further use of professional conductors, our plans will of course hinge crucially on the financial performance of the orchestra over the 2013-14 season.

Richard Howarth Whatever recommendations your committee decides to make, it is important that they have the full support of the orchestra. We therefore propose to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting at the start of the rehearsal on Thursday, 22nd May 2014 when we will be able to discuss our proposals in some detail. This is an important time of change for the orchestra and we hope that members will make every effort to attend the EGM.

The Alderley Edge Festival has been running for over 100 years. This year between 6th and 11th May we will be host to over 2600 young performers. We are proud to support Richard Howarth in making his first public performance as conductor of The Alderley Edge Orchestra .

2014 Alderley Edge Festival

We look forward to welcoming you to this prestigious annual event. If you would like to volunteer to help during 6thͶ11th May 2014 , please e-mail chairman@alderleyedgefestival.com Affiliated to The British and International Federation of Festivals