Saturday, 31 October, 2015, 4 PM: A Halloween Family Spooktacular

Worcester University Arena
University of Worcester Arena, Hylton Rd, Worcester WR2 5JN

Matthew Sharp- baritone and narrator
Kenneth Woods- Principal Conductor

Mussorgsky- A Night on Bald Mountain

Williams- Harry Potter

Schubert- The Elf King

Woods- The Ugly Duckling

Saint- Saens- Danse Macabre

Kraines- Hansel and Gretel

Mussorgsky- The Flea

Themes from Ghostbusters, Monster Mash and Scooby Doo, Where are You?

Spooky Music Games at 3pm, Concert at 4pm

Tickets £20 (£10 concessions) £50 family ticket

0844 888 9991 customerservices@ticketline.co.uk

Special Offer!

Free tickets to our Halloween Spooktacular for under-11’s who come in costume to the Instrument Petting Zoo at 3 PM on Saturday the 31st of October. Try all the instruments of the orchestra with expert guidance, pick your favourite and collect a voucher for a trial lesson at the Elgar School of Music. ‪#‎freeforkids‬

Stick around for a fun-filled family concert at 4 PM and see what you can do with a few decades of practice!

Book online here (free under 11 tickets at the door- parents advised to book in advance)

This concert is presented in support of the ESO’s Concerts in Care Homes and Hospices

October 5, 2015

ESO Orchestra Courses 2015-16

Once again we are running a series of Beginners and Intermediate orchestra courses during half-terms of the school year. Download your application form here from the brochure orchestra course SINGLE PAGES – page 4

The courses will be lead by principal horn James Topp and all the other tutors are regulars in the orchestra

September 10, 2015

ENGLISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PRESENT AN ELGAR PILGRIMAGE

For Immediate Release

PERFORMANCES IN MALVERN, HEREFORD AND BIRMINGHAM

COLLABORATION WITH ACADEMIA MUSICA CHOIR AND

SINGERS FROM THREE CHOIRS FESTIVAL CHORUS

WORLD PREMIERE PERFORMANCES OF NEWLY-ARRANGED ELGAR WORKS

As the English Symphony Orchestra (ESO) continues its resurgence under Principal Conductor Kenneth Woods, it’s fitting that the ensemble, based in Elgar’s hometown of Worcester, presents An Elgar Pilgrimage, a four-day festival in October, celebrating the composer’s life and music. Repertoire ranging from Elgar’s earliest to his last, some of his most iconic works, music by contemporaries, new commissions and world-premieres will be performed in a trinity of locations associated with Elgar: the Cathedral in Hereford where he lived at Plas Gwyn from 1904 – 1912, The Forum Theatre in Malvern where he lived from 1891 – 1904, and in the hall which bears his name at the University of Birmingham where he was appointed the University’s first Professor of Music in 1905.

(Composer Donald Fraser)

“By celebrating the music of Elgar and his legacy across the Midlands,” says Woods, “we are also celebrating the orchestra’s rich history with this music and our own pride of place as the professional orchestra of Elgar country. Given that Elgar’s music, which I’ve loved and performed all my life, is so central to British musical discourse, it’s incredibly exciting to be able to share with our audiences a programme that gives our listeners a chance to hear some of his greatest music from new perspectives.”

The curtain rises on An Elgar Pilgrimage on Wednesday, 7 October at Hereford Cathedral and brings together three of the region’s leading musical organisations: select members of the Three Choirs Festival Chorus; Academia Musica, the scholars choir of the Hereford Sixth Form College; and the English String Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Woods. The programme features two world-premieres, a virtuoso work for strings by Elgar, and an audience favourite by one of Elgar’s English contemporaries. The concert opener, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams was first performed in 1910 as part of the Three Choirs Festival. The ESO’s composer-in-association Philip Sawyers’ Songs of Loss and Regret was commissioned last year to commemorate the 100^thanniversary of the outbreak of World War I; featuring soprano soloist April Fredrick, the work receives its world-premiere on this concert. Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro, scored for string quartet and string orchestra, was composed in 1905 for the newly-formed London Symphony Orchestra. Elgar’s string writing has inspired the Elgar Pilgrimage’s Guest Composer Donald Fraser, who lived and worked for many years at Brinkwells, Elgar’s Sussex cottage. The climax of the Elgar Pilgrimage’s opening concert is the premiere of Fraser’s arrangement of the iconicSea Pictures for choir and string orchestra. “What Donald has done is quite incredible,” remarks Woods. “He’s not added, changed or removed a single note of Elgar’s work, but has created a new, flexible sound world between two homogenous ensembles.” The performance continues the successful collaboration between the ESO and Academia Musica, who in the spring won critical acclaim for their performance of Mozart’s Requiem at London’s St. John’s Smith Square, and marks a renewed association with the Three Choirs Festival.

Soprano April Fredrick

Woods and the ESO return to the Malvern Theatres on Thursday, October 8, to perform one of Elgar’s earliest works as well as one of his most revered, both put into context alongside a great 19^th century symphony. TheFroissart Overture was Elgar’s first large-scale orchestral work. Written in 1890, it was commissioned for that year’s Three Choirs Festival. Twenty years later, Elgar penned a work that became an instant hit, his Violin Concerto. This performance will feature Alexander Sitkovetsky, a protégé of Yehudi Menuhin, former Principal Guest Conductor of the ESO, who was indelibly associated with the work, having made the legendary recording with the composer on the podium. The influence on Elgar of continental European composers will be heard in one of his favourite works, Brahms’ Symphony No. 3, a work that served as the focus of his first lecture at the University of Birmingham.

Elgar and Brahms will be side by side again for a chamber music concert on Friday, 9 October, at the University of Birmingham’s Elgar Concert Hall. ESO guest artists violinists Alexander Sitkovetsky and Tamsin Waley-Cohen, violist Louise Lansdown, cellist Matthew Sharp and pianist Clare Hammond, will come together to perform Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25, the first of his three works in the genre, and Elgar’s Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 85, one of the composer’s latest works that was written at Brinkwells in 1919.

Elgar’s Piano Quintet features again in An Elgar Pilgrimage’s closing concert on Saturday, 10 October at the Elgar Concert Hall, this time in a world-premiere performance of Donald Fraser’s orchestration of the work. Another arrangement opens the programme, that by Elgar of J. S. Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, one of the composer’s final compositions. In between comes Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, the first great song cycle written by Gustav Mahler, who conducted Elgar’s Sea Pictures and Enigma Variations during his final season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in 1910-11.

An Elgar Pilgrimage is supported in part by Arts Council England.

* * * * *

All media enquiries, interview and image request, please contact Melanne Mueller,melanne@musiccointernational.com, +44 (0) 20 8698 6933

For further information about An Elgar Pilgrimage, please visit http://eso.co.uk/?page_id=2270

For further information about Kenneth Woods, please visit http://kennethwoods.net/blog1/

For further information about the English Symphony Orchestra, please visit http://eso.co.uk

AN ELGAR PILGRIMAGE

English Symphony Orchestra
English String Orchestra
Kenneth Woods – Principal Conductor
Donald Fraser – Guest Composer

7 – 10 October 2015
Hereford, Malvern, Birmingham

Wednesday, 7 October

7:30 pm (pre-concert talk at 6:30 pm)
Ralph Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
Philip Sawyers Songs of Loss and Regret (world premiere)
April Fredrick soprano
Edward Elgar Introduction and Allegro for Strings
Elgar/Fraser Sea Pictures (world premiere of new version for choir and strings)
English String Orchestra
Academia Musica
Three Choirs Voices
Kenneth Woods conductor

Hereford Cathedral
5 College Cloisters, Cathedral Close
Hereford HR1 2NG
Tickets £25, £20, £18, £15. Seniors 25% discount, children and students 50% discount

Hereford Courtyard Theatre Box Office: http://www.courtyard.org.uk/events/an-elgar-pilgrimage-sea-pictures-premiere/, 01432 340 555
Thursday, 8 October

7:45 pm (pre-concert talk at 6:30 pm)
Elgar Overture “Froissart”, Op. 19
Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90
Elgar Violin Concerto, Op. 61
Alexander Sitkovetsky violin
Malvern Theatres
Grange Road
Malvern, Worcestershire WR14 3HB
English Symphony Orchestra

Kenneth Woods conductor

Tickets £22.96 – £33.04 (inclusive of 12% booking fee)

Malvern Theatres Box Office: http://www.malvern-theatres.co.uk/events/event/english-symphony-orchestra-2015/, 01684 892 277
Friday, 9 October

7:30 pm (pre-concert talk at 6:45 pm)

Brahms Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25
Elgar Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 85

Elgar Concert Hall
University of Birmingham

Bramall Music Building,
Birmingham B15 2TT
Alexander Sitkovetsky and Tamsin Waley-Cohen violins
Louise Lansdown viola
Matthew Sharp cello
Clare Hammond piano

Tickets £20, £15, £10

Town Hall & Symphony Hall Box Office: http://www.thsh.co.uk/event/elgar-pilgrimage-brahms-and-elgar-chamber-music-on-an-orchestral-scale/, 0121 345 0600

Saturday, 10 October

4:00 pm (pre-cocnert talk at 3:15 pm)
J. S. Bach/Elgar Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, Op. 86
Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer)
Njabulo Madlala baritone
Elgar/Fraser Symphonic Realisation of Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84 (world premiere)
Elgar Concert Hall

University of Birmingham

Bramall Music Building,
Birmingham B15 2TT
Tickets £20, £15, £10
Town Hall & Symphony Hall Box Office: http://www.thsh.co.uk/event/elgar-pilgrimage-elgars-war-symphony-world-premier/, 0121 345 0600

June 8, 2015

Summer Orchestra Course Added

We are running a one-day orchestra course aimed at children on grades 1-5 at Sibford School in Oxfordshire on August 17th. Download your application form here sibford flyer v3

May 11, 2015

Review- ESO at St John’s Smith Square, Mozart Requiem: Origins

“…If ever an evening set the bar high this was it, but I can’t think of any evening that so comprehensively exceeded expectations.”

From the May edition of Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster Today

**Mozart’s Requiem: Origins
English Symphony Orchestra
Academia Musica Choir
Kenneth Woods**

St John’s Smith Square Friday 24 April 2015

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Requiem in D Minor (K626)

George Frideric Handel, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach

There was no K627

The trouble with being more a heart-on-sleeve fan rather than cool and restrained ice-critic is that the last concert always does seem to have been the best. Thus it was on a warm spring April night, when I collected the new lawyer and headed for the venue that always delivers, St John Smith Square. I have a number of positive links with the second city, and am Villa fan to boot, so I looked forward to welcoming the English Symphony Orchestra and the Academia Musica Choir to a Westminster gig that used to be beyond our borders, but is now within – for that most sacred of all sacred music the never knowingly under-mythologised Requiem, Mozart speaking to us individually from his death bed, classical structures redacting voyeurism. If ever an evening set the bar high this was it, but I can’t think of any evening that so comprehensively exceeded expectations.

Chatting to Kenneth Woods in the afterglow of the perfect cultural event, edifying, educating, and at once thoroughly entertaining, in the perfectly intimate surroundings of SJSS, Kenneth put his agenda simply: “rebuilding a mass audience for great music will depend on strengthening the sense of community and fellowship around concerts. Pre-concert talks are a great way for the audience and me to get to know each other”.

The charismatic Woods gave a dramatic tour through the key influences of WF Bach and Handel, interacting deftly with the choir and orchestra, before moving seamlessly into Handel’s Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline (The Ways of Zion do Mourn); high art (and plenty of it) presented with the ease and confidence of the true expert. However interesting and rewarding, these appetisers only served as heralds. Woods clearly knew exactly how to stage Mozart’s Requiem for maximum effect. I suspect if you’ve read this far you know it well but if you don’t, perhaps because sacred music doesn’t appeal, Mozart really does transcend genre. If you think because it’s a requiem it’s going to be too complex or just plain dark (and none of the movements have been made famous in adverts), remember that Mozart’s command of melody makes him perhaps the most accessible of all the really big-hitters.

The main controversy around the Requiem is to do with authorship. Elements of his pupil (and close friend) Süssmayr’s contributions (particularly Sanctus and Benedictus) have been subjected to quite unnecessarily harsh criticism. I actually find them appealingly innocent given that he was writing in the immediate aftermath of Mozart’s death. Some purists might think they’re a bit progressive rock, well maybe, but prog rock was rehabilitated years ago. Haydn’s famous quote “posterity will not see such a talent again in a hundred years “was uttered at the time of The Requiem’s premier. Kenneth Woods in his excellent exposition of the work and its influences establishes that authorship is interesting scholarship but a piece of music stands or falls on its own particularly if brand Mozart is throwing its weight about, and the work was substantially complete by the time of his death.

For the informed amateur the question of authenticity around The Requiem is a distraction that Kenneth Woods has (certainly for me) resolved with considerable finality:

“People have been arguing over [Süssmayr’s contribution when collating and completing Mozart’s work] for years, but I think it’s safe to say that the music is almost all Mozart, who wrote out the vocal parts and bass line from beginning to end for almost all of the piece. Süssmayr must have had sketches and detailed instructions from Mozart for the three movements that Mozart wasn’t able to write down. Süssmayr’s role was primarily that of an orchestrator/arranger. The two short “Osanna” fugues are probably the part of the piece where only Mozart’s theme survives. The idea is inspired, but they’re unimaginatively worked out by poor Süssmayr. At least they’re short.”

So there you are. An argument that has been raging for over 220 years can be parked. It’s pretty much all Mozart, except for the little bits that aren’t, and which are either charming anyway, or immaterial.

On the night, Woods ably supported by a splendid orchestra and choir featuring soprano Sofia Larsson, contralto Emma Curtis, tenor Matthew Minter, and bass Brian Bannatyne-Scott, and with apologies to a cast of about a hundred all of whom deserve a mention, produced a real tour-de-force. Nothing oozes a glamour more lustrous than The Requiem, not even reading Fitzgerald and drinking Vodka Martinis on a balmy Boxing Day in Cap Ferrat. A fabulous rendition of Mozart’s most famous piece, Woods argues perhaps his best. There was no K627.

April 26, 2015

Gramophone Magazine Rave for ESO’s “Wall of Water” CD

“…This is a wonderful performance of a wonderful concerto, completed by immaculate accompaniment from the English String Orchestra directed by the tireless Kenneth Woods. Very, very strongly recommended.”

From the May 2015 issue of Gramophone Magazine

[product id=2013]

Pritchard

Violin Concerto, “Wall of Water”

Harriet Mackenzie vn English String Orchestra / Kenneth Woods

Nimbus Alliance (S) CD NI1555 (21’ ^. DDD

Every now and then, a new work comes along that simply takes one’s breath away. The Violin Concerto Wall of Water(2014) by Deborah Pritchard is one such. Composed last year “in response to the paintings by Maggi Hambling”—a sequence of at the time 13 paintings inspired by the Suffolk coast—the concerto is scored for a chamber group of 13 strings only: the soloist plus seven orchestral violinists, pairs of violas and cellos and a double-bass.

Deborah Pritchard compsing in Maggi Hambling's Suffolk studio — Deborah Pritchard composing in Maggi Hambling’s Suffolk studio

Despite the modest forces employed, the concerto is ablaze with colour across its twenty-one minutes, mirroring the transitions of colours in the Hambling paintings, with muted tones and colour ranges in the outer sections (corresponding roughly to paintings I-III and XII-XIII) enclosing a richer and more varied palette for paintings IV-XI, the whole framed by an opening solo violin cadenza and its varied reprise emerging from and returning to the darkness. (In live performance, the concerto can be accompanied by a synchronised video display of the Hambling paintings, but the music stands supremely well by itself.)

Wall of Water was written for Harriet Mackenzie (one member of the superb Retorica Duo, 2/13, 4/13), who plays this alternately elegiac and passionate music with a burning commitment and intensity that composers usually only dream of, but then she has been gifted a work whose high quality is rarely encountered. This is a wonderful performance of a wonderful concerto, completed by immaculate accompaniment from the English String Orchestra directed by the tireless Kenneth Woods. Very, very strongly recommended.

Guy Rickards

March 1, 2015

ESO Chamber Music, 25 April, 2015

Saturday 25th April 7pm– Hartlebury Castle

‘Harvey’s War Letters’

Presented by the Cavan Trio:

Helena Cavan – Poet/Composer

Corinne Frost- Cello

Janine Smith – Piano

The Cavan Trio present a new programme of beautiful cello and piano music, inspiring poetry, war songs and reading of letters written from the trenches of WW1 by the cellist’s grandfather, Harvey Frost.

Join us for this original and uplifting remembrance experience as we commemorate the first world war centenary with music by Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Granados and more.

February 16, 2015

RIP John McCabe, ESO Composer-in-Association

It is with very, very heavy hearts that we learned today of the passing of John McCabe.

John had been composer-in-association for the ESO since 2013, an affiliation that the orchestra will always take enormous pride in. He was one of the most prolific and outstanding composers of his generation, a virtuoso pianist, and a widely-loved colleague and friend. Our condolences go out to his wife Monica, and to everyone who knew and loved this remarkable man.

Composer-in-association, John McCabe (photo Gareth Arnold)

The sheer magnitude of John’s achievement as a musician will take years for music historians to fully appreciate, but when today’s loss is absorbed and the assessments are complete, he will surely stand as one of the greatest composers that Britain has ever produced.

The ESO’s Principal Conductor, Kenneth Woods, says of the orchestra’s collaboration with McCabe that “it will forever be a source of deep regret that John’s appointment as composer-in-association with the orchestra coincided almost exactly with the onset of his illness. There were so many more projects we wanted to do, and I know John bitterly regretted the times he was unable to travel to join us. John was so excited about the prospects for the partnership and was infinitely generous with his wisdom and energy, helping us to put his music in the right contexts. The video interviews we recorded as part of the association are fascinating- John could speak with awe-inspiring fluency on any musical topic. He was someone who could inspire and instruct the most expert professional musicians and engage with a general audience with wit and warmth.”

The English Symphony Orchestra will continue to keep McCabe’s music in the orchestra’s repertoire and hope to celebrate John’s legacy with the orchestra through future recordings.

On March 1, the ESO are presenting a chamber music concert by Woods’s string trio, Ensemble Epomeo, which will include a performance of McCabe’s String Trio. The concert is free to members of ESO Friends, but also open to the public. Booking details are here.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31457464

January 22, 2015

Next Care Home Concerts

Thursday 5th November 2015

ESO Wind Quartet:

Catherine Handley flute,
Graeme Adams oboe,
Julia Holmes clarinet,
Keith Rubach bassoon;

Breme Residential Care Home, Bromsgrove;
Rashwood, Wychbold, Droitwich;
Dorset House Nursing & Residential Care Home, Droitwich

Programme

Clarke Trumpet Voluntary

Elgar Chanson de Matin

Trad Greensleeves

Vivaldi Allegro non molto from Concerto in G minor

Mozart Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Handel La Réjouissance (from Music for the Royal Fireworks)

Richard Rodney Bennett Travel Notes 2:

In an air-balloon; In a bath chair; Car-chase

Arlen Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Arden-Taylor Bach Goes to Sea

Traditional Danny Boy

Traditional Turkey in the Straw

Kern Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Cole Porter Anything Goes

Haydn Wood Roses of Picardy

January 3, 2015

17 June, 2015: Magna Carta Festival: Prayers for Peace and Freedom

17 June, 2014
12:15 PM
ESO Chamber Music
Magna Carta Celebrations at Worcester Cathedral
8 College Yard, Worcester WR1 2LA

Corinne Frost- cello

Janine Smith- piano

Cello improvisation based on the subject of freedom.

Shostakovich – Sonata in D minor opus 40.

Amazing Grace.

Castelnuovo-Tedesco- Figaro

Possible encore- Casals-Song of the Birds.

BOX OFFICE: ON SALE SOON

This programme celebrates Magna Carta by exploring the theme of freedom. We begin with a cello improvisation based on the concept of liberty and the rights of the people. The Shostakovich sonata reflects his response to the oppression of the communist regime that he was living under. Amazing Grace tells the story of slave trader John Newton’s conversion and conveys his vision of freedom through the grace of God. Finally The Marriage of Figaro depicts the peasants’ response to the droit de seigneur which gave rulers unlimited powers over their subjects – their comic victory reflects the real curtailing of such powers in Magna Carta.

Worcester University Arena University of Worcester Arena, Hylton Rd, Worcester WR2 5JN