Worthing Symphony Orchestra offer Renewal and Remembrance

Maria Marchant returns on Sunday, November 14 as Worthing Symphony Orchestra present Renewal and Remembrance.
MARIA MARCHANTMARIA MARCHANT
MARIA MARCHANT

WSO spokeswoman Jennie Osborne said: “When Sussex pianist Maria Marchant made her debut with Worthing Symphony Orchestra in the pre-lockdown November of 2019, her dazzling performance of the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No 2 was a triumph. During the interval she completely sold out of copies of her then latest CD Echoes of Land and Sea with long queues forming to meet her.

“Who could have foreseen what has happened between then and now, but two years later, almost to the day, she returns to the Assembly Hall – this time to play Beethoven’s heroic Emperor Symphony No 5.

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“It has been described as the embodiment of Romantic conflict, and the title may well have been first used in Vienna at an 1812 concert ordered by the city’s French conquerors. It is one of the most accomplished of all piano concertos, with a striking opening movement and a glorious rondo finale, but it is the beauty and serenity of the hymn-like adagio which makes this one of Beethoven’s greatest creations.”

Jennie added: “Maria is a Sussex girl, born and bred in the county with strong links still. As well as her thriving career as a concert pianist, she teaches at Roedean and is artist-in-residence for the Shipley Arts Festival.

“She is also forging new links with Worthing and the WSO and she is delighted to be returning for her second concert appearance.

“The concert opens with more Beethoven in the shape of the Overture: The Creatures of Prometheus. This brilliant overture to the ballet of the same name bristles with energy often said to represent Prometheus fleeing from heaven after stealing fire from the Gods.

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“Ravel wrote his Le Tombeau de Couperin in 1917 in tribute to his friends killed in the war and as a homage to the great 18th-century French composer Louis Couperin. In reality the work is not sombre in mood but rather a light-hearted, and sometimes reflective work. As Ravel said himself: ‘The dead are sad enough, in their eternal silence.’

“The very talented George Butterworth, awarded the MC, was killed by a sniper’s bullet at the Battle of the Somme. His idyll The Banks of Green Willow is based upon two folk songs – The Banks of Green Willow and Green Bushes. It is one his best works and perfectly captures the nature of the English countryside. It is almost as if the music occurred naturally and Butterworth just discovered it!

“Elgar’s Sospiri was composed in the months leading up to the outbreak of the First World War and perhaps the gathering storm clouds moved him to write this beautiful, heartfelt adagio. Puccini’s Crisantemi (The Chrysanthemums) was composed in one night on hearing the news of the death of his friend, Amadeo di Savoia, the second son of Vittorio Emanuele II . This short elegy for strings is named after the flower of mourning and lament and ideas from it were later used in his opera Manon Lescaut.”

The concert starts at 2.45pm at the Assembly Hall, Worthing. The back half of the stalls, in the new seating plan, allows some spacing with only alternate rows available for sale. The balcony and the front stalls are fully available. Tickets at wtam.uk or on 01903 206206.

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