Sutton Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is back at St Andrew’s URC, Cheam on Saturday 24th March for its spring concert, a programme full of romance and revolution.
Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture is first up, a piece that mirrors the Shakespeare play thus incorporating the amiable friar, fighting Montagues and Capulets, romance, more fighting, more romance, a more fraught friar and then xxxxxxx. No spoilers here – come along and find out if R&J lived happily ever after.
Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto follows with a welcome return for John Paul Ekins as soloist. Regularly topping classical music polls as the most romantic piece ever written and well known since its use in Brief Encounter, it actually offers much more than that to the listener and has great orchestral parts to boot.
Shostakovich’s mighty 10th Symphony forms the 2nd half. Shostakovich was a child of revolutionary Russia, having lived through the 1917 revolutions and experienced first-hand the years of terror and violence that followed. Depicting a portrait of Stalin and released the year of his death, there is much conjecture about when the symphony was actually written and whether Shostakovich composed parts seen to be critical of Stalin before his demise in March. Whatever the case, it’s pretty full on with moments of despair and discordant violence mixed with Russian dances, and a clever use of the composer’s initials in the last movement – all in a good way. Whenever it was actually composed, the triumphant ending suggests Shostakovich saw a brighter future for the USSR post-Stalin.
7.30pm start, tickets from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/423556 or on the door: adults £10, under 18s free. Cakes at the interval.
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