Music am Nachmittag
An hour of exquisite chamber music - Twice!
You have two chances to hear this concert, so there are no excuses for missing this wonderful programme of
music as well as meeting our new conductor, Quentin Clare. Given the
recent COVID pandemic we have scheduled two concerts so that each
concert audience will be smaller and hence allow more space and social
distancing. The first is at 15:00 and then we repeat the concert again
at 17:00. Both concerts are at Firth Hall at the University of
Sheffield.
Our new conductor starts by introducing us all to a piece he knows well and loves — Jean Philippe Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes. This beautiful piece of music was originally composed for an “Opera Ballet” by one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. When the opera was put on in 1736 (after some revisions) a ‘prodigious’ audience flocked to the theatre. Come and see why!
Next up is Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll — a piece that oozes love. Wagner composed this chamber piece as a birthday present to his second wife, Cosima after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869. It was first performed on Christmas morning, 25 December 1870 on the stairs of their villa at Tribschen (today part of Lucerne), Switzerland. Cosima awoke to its opening melody. It is hard (if not impossible) to find a more lovely and intimate piece in the whole of the classical music repertoire.
Our concert continues with Masques and Bergamesques, an orchestral suite by Gabriel Fauré, which like our first piece was first composed for the theatre. It has remained one of his most popular works, partly because the pieces are drawn from his earlier works, so in some ways you will get to hear “the best of” Fauré!
We conclude with Mozart’s Symphony #35 in D “The Haffner” composed in
1782 and commissioned for the ennoblement of Sigmund Haffner. This
work started out as a serenade for the wedding of Haffner’s daughter but
Mozart reworked it later into this symphony of 4 movements, which lasts
for a very pleasant 20 minutes.
Programme
- Les Indes Galantes: Jean-Philippe Rameau
- Siegfried Idyll: Richard Wagner
- Masques and Bergamesques: Gabriel Fauré
- Symphony #35 in D Major: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
