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St Albans Symphony Orchestra
More about: Music
The St Albans Symphony Orchestra (SASO) returns to St Saviour’s Church in St Albans on Saturday the 11th of March.
Conducted by Mark Biggins, SASO will play Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel Overture, then will welcome back Veronika Shoot as soloist in Ravel’s sparkling Piano Concerto in G major. (Veronika has previously given us wonderful performances of Grieg and Shostakovich concertos).
Following the interval, the concert will conclude with Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique.
Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, a “fairytale play”, was originally a labour of love. His sister had written some verses based on the famous Grimm’s fairy tale and asked her brother to set them to music for a Christmas party for her children. He then enlarged it to 16 songs with piano accompaniment and presented it to his fiancée as an engagement present. Following that, he began work orchestrating it, turning it into a fully fledged three-act opera.
Ravel said that his Piano Concerto in G was not aiming to be profound, but to entertain, in the manner of Mozart and Saint-Saëns. Among its other influences are jazz and Basque folk music.
Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique is an important work from the early Romantic period. The American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein described the symphony as ‘the first musical expedition into psychedelia because of its hallucinatory and dream-like nature’.
Tickets are on sale, priced at £18 (nave), £13 (aisle), £8 (unreserved), £5 (student), £2 (accompanied child).
Online: click ‘book now’ on https://saso.org.uk/events/orchestral-classics/ or go to https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/stalbanssymphonyorchestra.
Telephone: 01525 862097 or 07976 800445
