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My colleagues in the orchestra and I are delighted to invite you to join us for our 2011-12 Season. This promises to be one of the most exciting and ambitious years in the orchestra’s history.
Many threads run through the upcoming season- we are well into a survey of the major orchestral works of Johannes Brahms, and this year we are looking forward to starting the season with Brahms’ ever-fresh Variations on a theme by Haydn, welcoming the extraordinary British contralto Emma Curtis for a performance of the deeply moving Alto Rhapsody, and concluding the 2012 Guildford Spring Music Festival with a performance of the lyrical and thrilling Second Symphony. No composer was closer to Brahms than Antonin Dvorak, so it makes perfect sense to pair the Haydn Variations with the Dvorak Violin Concerto played by one of the greatest English violinists, SMP favourite, Alexandra Wood, and to pair the Second Symphony with Dvorak’s masterful Symphonic Variations. Austrian composer and Holocaust survivor Hans Gál was a pioneering Brahms scholar, but his own compositions are finally becoming recognized as the melodious masterpieces they are thanks to a ground-breaking series of recordings on Avie Records. Gál developed his ear for orchestration from watching Mahler’s rehearsal with the Vienna Opera as a young boy, so it is truly exciting to be performing his witty and virtuosic Triptych alongside Mahler’s Rückert Lieder, sung by Ferrier Prize winner Marcus Farnsworth.
Of course, being the Surrey Mozart Players, it is always our pleasure to bring you plenty of the best of Mozart and the other classical masters. Mozart’s Prague and Linz symphonies and Mendelssohn’s Scottish serve to show us how the classical masters could evoke a sense of place. Finally, a performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is always a special landmark in an orchestra’s history. We are all looking forward to welcoming our wonderful quartet of soloists and the Guildford Chamber Choir on 19 November for an evening of music we will all remember for years to come. |
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