Spring Concert, May 2004

The May 2004 Charity concert was held on Saturday 22nd May 2004, 7.30pm at St. Mary’s Church, Bramall Lane, Sheffield and featured The Endcliffe Orchestra, with additional items by the Eglantine Consort.

The orchestra was conducted by Alan Eost; the leader was Alison Trezise.  A collection was taken in aid of  The Weston Park Hospital

The following programme of works was performed:

• Overture: Mirella - Gounod
• Humoresque (Op. 101 No. 7) - Dvořák
• Valse Triste (Op. 44 No. 1) - Sibelius
• Little Suite No. 2 (Op. 78) - Arnold
• Symphony No. 31 in D major (K.297) - Mozart

Charles Gounod (1818-1893) was born in Paris to an artist father and musician mother and studied music at the Paris Conservatoire.  In 1837, after he had been in the conservatoire but one year, he won the second Prix de Rome with his cantata Marie Stuart and Rizzio; and in 1839 he won the Grand Prix de Rome with his cantata Fernand, carrying twenty-five votes out of twenty-seven.  Gounod's important dramatic works were produced during the years from 1850 to 1870, after which he devoted his time almost wholly to religious compositions.  The opera Mirella is one of Gounod’s best known works, composed in 1864.

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904), born in a Bohemian village, where his father was an inn-keeper and butcher, followed Smetana as the leading exponent of Czech musical nationalism, firmly within the classical traditions of Central Europe.  The best known of all the pieces Dvorák wrote for the piano must be the Humoresque in G flat major, the seventh of a set of eight.  Tonight’s performance is a transcription for orchestra by Adolf Schmid.

Few composers have enjoyed the popularity that Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) did during their lifetimes. As a student at the Helsinki Music Institute (later renamed the Sibelius Academy) in the late 1880's, he quickly caught the attention of his teachers through his composing abilities.  Valse Triste (1903) was Sibelius' most popular sucessful work during his lifetime. As Cecil Gray (the esteemed critic) wrote in 1931, "'Valse Triste' is to be heard in every picture-palace, restaurant, cafe, tea-shop, and cabaret in the civilized world, from San Francisco to Cairo, and from Stockholm to Capetown." It is taken from incidental music to a play called Kuolema ("Death"), written by Sibelius' brother-in-law Arvid Järnefelt.

Sir Malcolm Arnold (born 1921) is one of the most fluent and versatile composers of his, or any other, generation. His prolific output comprises symphonies, concerti, chamber music, stage works, divertimenti, choral music, song cycles and music for wind and brass band, whilst his catalogue of over a hundred scores for film and television includes the Oscar-winning Bridge on the River Kwai. The Little Suite No. 2, Op. 78 was premiered in 1961 at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), just twenty-two years old and chaperoned by his mother, had traveled to Paris early in 1778 seeking fame for himself and for his music.  On June 18, the composer conducted the premiere of his Symphony No. 31 to frequent and extended applause from the rarely amenable Parisians. Indeed, so well received was the work that it earned more performances in future weeks. "I was so happy," Mozart wrote to his father Leopold a few days later, "that as soon as the symphony was over, I went off to the Palais Royal, where I had a large ice, said the Rosary as I had vowed to do, and went home."