In Pictures: St Luke’s Festival Orchestra – 13 June 2015

Two years on from St Luke’s Church’s inaugural Music Festival, the two-week long event has returned. Opening tonight’s first concert of this 2015 season, Revd Sally Lynch said that it was “wonderful to once again be welcoming people into this beautiful building, as together we celebrate the gift of music”.

John Cotterill accepting applause at the end of tonight's Festival Orchestra concert.

John Cotterill accepting applause at the end of tonight’s Festival Orchestra concert.
[PHOTO: © Andrew Burdett 2015]

John Cotterill, the artistic director of the Music Festival, took centre-stage just after 7:30pm, conducting for the first time at St Luke’s since retiring as the church’s Director of Music in December 2014. As in 2013, he’d assembled a scratch orchestra to perform classical greats, with the programme featuring music by Mozart, Haydn, Handel, and Schubert.

The evening lasted two hours, including a twenty-minute interval during which refreshments were served at the back of church. Turnout was perhaps lower than hoped, but the fifty-odd attendees were treated to a stunning concert in a beautiful setting.


Photo Gallery

With grateful thanks to Phil Bray for loan of equipment.

 


Programme

Also available as a PDF download.

WA Mozart (1756 — 1791)

SERENADE No. 13 – Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K.525

  1. Allegro
  2. Romance (Andante)
  3. Menuetto (Allegretto)
  4. Rondo (Allegro)

One of Mozart’s most popular works, this ‘little Serenade’ for strings was completed in Vienna on 10 August 1787 around the time that Mozart was working on the second act of Don Giovanni. It is not known why or for whom it was composed, and it was not published until about 1827 long after the composer’s death. Nevertheless, what a perfect gem!

J Haydn (1732 — 1809)

SYMPHONY No. 87 IN A MAJOR

  1. Vivace
  2. Adagio
  3. Menuet & Trio
  4. Finale – Vivace

This is the last of Haydn’s so-called Paris Symphonies, written in 1786 for the famous Concert Spirituel founded in 1725 as the real beginning of public concert giving in France. The Symphony is scored for flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns and strings, and the Trio section of the third movement contains a captivating oboe solo.

Interval

GF Handel (1685 — 1759)

ORGAN CONCERTO IN F MAJOR, Opus 4, No. 4

  1. Allegro
  2. Andante
  3. Adagio
  4. Allegro

Opus 4 of Handel’s Organ Concertos contains the six organ concertos he composed in London between 1735 and 1736 and which were published in 1738. They were written really to be played as interludes in performances of Handel’s oratorios at Covent Garden, and this concerto was first performed with ‘Athalia’.

F Schubert (1797 — 1828)

SYMPHONY NO. 5 IN B FLAT MAJOR, D.485

  1. Allegro
  2. Andante con moto
  3. Menuetto (Allegro molto)
  4. Allegro vivace

Schubert completed his 5th Symphony on 30 October 1816, six months after his previous symphony. It is the only one of his nine symphonies which does not include clarinets, and as such the writing is often said to resemble Mozart. In fact the instrumentation matches not only that of the first version of Mozart’s 40th Symphony which influenced Schubert considerably, but also that of Haydn’s 87th noted above.


Orchestra

[column size=”one-half”]

Violins

Ron Colyer (leader)
Erika Eisele
Guy Haskell
Carolyn London

Stephanie Cole
Rachel Colbourne
Marilyn Vanryn
James Greener

Violas

Sue Black
Sue Taylor

Cellos

Jackie Ratcliffe
Marcelle Steenkamp

Double Bass

Jess Ryan
[/column]
[column size=”one-half” last=”true”]

Flute

Jay Wilkinson

Oboes

Rachel Porter
Frances Jones

Bassoons

Simon Payne
Guy Thomas

Horns

Sabrina Pullen
Sylvia Pullen
[/column]

Andrew Burdett

Andrew Burdett is a twenty-something from Maidenhead in Berkshire, working for ITV News.