English Symphony Orchestra conclude acclaimed Storytelling series with two beloved tales by the Brothers Grimm

• 9^th April – Henry Goodman returns for Thomas Kraines’s setting of Hansel and Gretel

• 16^th April – Gemma Whelan narrates Kile Smith’s The Bremen Town Musicians with illustrations by members of ESO Youth and students from Chadsgrove School, Bromsgrove

• Performances streamed via eso.co.uk and on Facebook at facebook.com/englishsymphonyorchestra
• Double CD featuring the whole storytelling series to be released worldwide 4 June with Nimbus Alliance

The English Symphony Orchestra (ESO) will complete their ground-breaking series of new storytelling works for narrator and orchestra in April with the world premiere broadcasts of two of the most popular stories by the Brothers Grimm: Hansel and Gretel (music by Thomas Kraines) narrated by Henry Goodman, and The Bremen Town Musicians (music by Kile Smith) narrated by Gemma Whelan.

Henry Goodman, whose previous appearance with the ESO in David Yang’s Lubin, from Chelm was praised for his “barbed whimsy”, returns to narrate Thomas Kraines’s witty and spiky setting of Hansel and Gretel.

Composer Kraines says of the piece that “I wrote Hansel and Gretel to perform with the children’s musical troupe Auricolae in 2008, and orchestrated it a few years later, at the behest of Maestro Kenneth Woods.”

Conductor Kenneth Woods says “Tom’s piece is full of musical in-jokes – there’s a lot of poking fun at the ‘serious’ nature of German music, in particular.” Kraines concurs: “Perhaps in response to the gothic nature of the story, the piece is very self-consciously Germanic; the leitmotifs for Hansel and Gretel are both Wagnerian in character (although Hansel’s theme originated as an alteration of Schubert’s “Das Wandern”), and the witch/stepmother’s theme is a Schoenbergian tone row. The woodcutter’s theme, the first music one hears in the piece, is a thinly disguised motive from Strauss’ “Metamorphosen,” which Strauss himself had lifted from the funeral march in Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony. In a particularly grandiose touch, all the tempo and character markings are in German as well (I don’t speak German); of course, this doesn’t need to concern the listener at all, but I thought of it as an in-joke between myself and the performers.

Kraines particularly relished the chance to expand his work for full orchestra. “I’m very grateful to Ken for his encouragement and advice in orchestrating the piece; both as a cellist and a composer I’m much more at home in more intimate settings, and it was a thrill to write for such comparatively large forces.  My gratitude and awe also go to Henry Goodman, whose nuanced and thrilling interpretation of the story elevates the piece immeasurably.” Kraines’ story will be illuminated with a collection of historic illustrations from the ‘golden age’ of illustration, featuring drawings and paintings from the late 1800’s to the 1940’s, as well as performance footage of the orchestra.

Kile Smith’s setting of The Bremen Town Musicians is narrated by comedian and actress Gemma Whelan, who has earned an enthusiastic following for both her regular appearances on Horrible Histories and her iconic performance as Yura Greyjoy in Game of Thrones. Like Hansel and Gretel, Smith’s version of Bremen started as a work for violin and cello. “David Yang commissioned the duo version of The Bremen Town Musicians for Auricolae in 2008” notes composer Kile Smith. “It has since been taken up by other ensembles across the country, as far away as Australia and Qatar, and in the Philadelphia Orchestra “Our City, Your Orchestra” 2021 chamber music series.

“In 2016 the conductor Kenneth Woods, who as cellist performed and recorded Bremen with Auricolae, asked me to orchestrate it for his English Symphony Orchestra” says Smith. “I’ve adapted the Brothers Grimm story for my libretto, changing none of the salient features of this tale of four animals who, seeking fortune in the far city of Bremen, fall among thieves, outwit them, and find their good fortune as friends together, never arriving in Bremen.” The filmed performance of Bremen also includes a collection of handmade illustrations by members of the ESO Youth ensembles and students from Chadsgrove School, Bromsgrove.

Andrew Farquharson, Chief Executive Officer of English Symphony Orchestra says of the series “As the ESO’s storytelling project reaches completion, The Bremen Town Musicians and Hansel and Gretel will join Kenneth Woods’ setting of The Ugly Duckling with Hugh Bonneville, Jay Reise’s The Warrior Violinist with Davood Ghadami and David Yang’s Lubin from Chelm with Henry Goodman which we’re looking forward to releasing worldwide together on a new double CD – ‘Fiddles, Forests and Fowl Fables’ – from Nimbus Alliance on 4 June”.