Saturday 28th June
Five members of the Symphonic Brass of London perform a huge range of music for tonight’s programme, many in arrangements by the recently deceased Nick Lloyd.
Dating from around 1720, “The Harmonious Blacksmith” is the name by which the “Air and Variations” movement of Handel’s Suite No. 5 in E major, HWV 430 is popularly known. This was originally composed for harpsichord, and this familiar name postdates the composer by some 100 years, and of course there are many theories as to its origin.
The Haydn F major Adagio, Hob.XVII:9 (aka Op. 46 No. 7) was originally written in 1786 for keyboard.
The wartime song, London Pride, by Noël Coward dates from 1941. It is based on an English folk song and street seller’s cry, “Won’t You Buy My Sweet-Blooming Lavender” which is used to express the patriotic sentiments of the time.
Beethoven’s Rondino in E♭ Major, originally called Rondo, was composed in the early 1790s and published much later in 1830. It was written for wind ensemble and a horn duet with the tone colour of the horns still being a challenge for the performer’s technique and supplemented by the use of mutes.
“The March of the Women” is now heard as the unofficial anthem of the women’s suffrage movement. It is a song written by Ethel Smyth in 1910 using a text by Cicerly Hamilton.
“Salut d’Amour,” originally Liebesgruß (Love’s greeting) from 1888 was written by Elgar as an engagement gift for his fiancé Caroline Alice Roberts. The original instrumentation was for piano and violin but has been transcribed for many other instruments since.
One of the best known songs by The Kinks, “Waterloo Sunset” was written in 1967 by front man Ray Davies. Waterloo station was important to Davies as it was a lasting memory of views of London from St Thomas’ hospital where he was ill as a young teenager. The lyrics are musings of a couple walking across a bridge in the vicinity of Waterloo and the music is well regarded not only for the melody, but also for the atmospheric and unusual guitar echo created with tape loops.
“Penny Lane” was released as a double A-Side single with “Strawberry Fields Forever” in 1967. “Penny lane” is of course a street in Liverpool from which McCartney in part drew inspiration for this song. Interestingly, the original instrumentation included a piccolo trumpet making this a well suited work for a brass ensemble transcription.
The Rig Veda is a collection of 10 books (“Mandalas”) of 1028 hymns (“sūktas”) in the Hindu tradition. Gustav Holst wrote 4 groups of choral hymns based on the Rig Veda with the fourth group containing Hymn to Agni, Hymn to Soma, Hymn to Manas and Hymn to Indra, and two of these are performed in this programme tonight.
From 1914, “La Violetera” (“Woman who sells violets”) by José Padilla was originally written as a Spanish cabaret song, but has since featured in many films and used instrumentally, as a tango.
The theme tune of the 1973 James Bond film “Live and Let Die” was written by Paul and Linda McCartney and performed, at McCartney’s insistence, by Wings. Reputedly, it was written in a day after Paul had read the Ian Fleming novel on which the film was based.
Malcolm Arnold’s Quintet for Brass, Op. 73 from 1961 was originally scored for two trumpets, two trombones and French horn, though a tuba often replaces the second tombone. This is a classic brass quintet work, and here we hear just the edgy final third movement, Con Brio.
From the 1965 album “Rubber Soul,” John Lennon’s song, “Norwegian Wood (This Bird has Flown)”, is famous for being the first Western rock recording to feature a sitar (with George Harrison playing).
James Last (born Hans Last and died 10 years ago in June 2015) was a German composer and band leader. “Happy Heart” was written in 1969 with Jackie Rae and was famously recorded and critically acclaimed by Petula Clark and Andy Williams.