Concert

William Walton’s overture Portsmouth Point was composed in 1925; the inspiration for the overture comes from a Thomas Rowlandson etching of the same title, which depicts ‘a rowdy port … with a dense jumble of ships, sailors, taverns, drunken carousers, women of ill repute, and a peg-legged fiddler entertaining a dancing couple.’ The music has tremendous energy, the style influenced to some extent by Stravinsky and contemporary jazz idioms.

1917 was a tumultuous year for Russian politics but a productive one for Sergei Prokofiev, who completed numerous compositions including his first violin concerto and first symphony. He cited the violin concerto as an example of his ‘lyric’ style, although the work received a lukewarm response at its première in Paris, apparently because of its ‘excessive lyricism’! This expressive work is now considered one the best 20^th century violin concertos, alongside those of Sibelius, Bartok and Barber.

Elgar’s Symphony no.1 of 1908 notched up more than 100 performances in its first year alone. Even the Daily Mail joined the frenzy. Under the headline, ‘The Musical Event of the Year’, it enthused: ‘It is quite plain that here we have perhaps the finest masterpiece of its type that ever came from the pen of an English composer.’  Elgar was 51. He had pondered the composition for many years, and had composed some trial runs with ‘Cockaigne’ and ‘In the South’, extended pieces in symphonic style. He knew that England’s first ‘real’ symphony had to be something special, and it was.

Ticket Information

Admission: £20, £10 (students), £6 (under 14)