Tag: Malvern

Beyond the Horizon – Bristol

Beyond the Horizon – Bristol

Our ‘Music for Humans’ Season continues with a programme that explores music’s power to capture and share moments of happiness, acts of love and kindness and feelings of common purpose and security.

At the heart of this programme is Samuel Barber’s masterpiece, ‘Knoxville: Summer of 1915’, his setting of a prose poem by James Agee. Composed by Barber shortly after World War II, Barber’s setting of Agee’s poem presents a child’s view of life and loss in a rural America that seems, on the surface, far removed from the brutality of the two World Wars. But Barber’s post-War perspective brings extra poignance to Agee’s text, putting to the fore not only the beauty of a world and a community in which a child feels safe and loved, but the tragedy of losing that.

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Beyond the Horizon – Malvern

Beyond the Horizon – Malvern

Our ‘Music for Humans’ Season continues with a programme that explores music’s power to capture and share moments of happiness, acts of love and kindness and feelings of common purpose and security.

At the heart of this programme is Samuel Barber’s masterpiece, ‘Knoxville: Summer of 1915’, his setting of a prose poem by James Agee. Composed by Barber shortly after World War II, Barber’s setting of Agee’s poem presents a child’s view of life and loss in a rural America that seems, on the surface, far removed from the brutality of the two World Wars. But Barber’s post-War perspective brings extra poignance to Agee’s text, putting to the fore not only the beauty of a world and a community in which a child feels safe and loved, but the tragedy of losing that.

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Across the Sea

Across the Sea

For as long as classical music has been around, many composers have tried to capture the essence of the sea and the ocean within their work. They often try to embody the calm and tempestuous emotions of the waves and depict the undulating and unpredictability of the bodies of water they are trying to express. And tonight, the ESO will transport you on a voyage across the Seven Seas for an evening of evocative seascapes.

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Daniel Rowland at Great Malvern Priory

Daniel Rowland at Great Malvern Priory

Following on from the success of Poulenc’s full-length ballet score, Les biches, commissioned by the legendary Sergei Diaghilev in 1923, the composer was fortunate to enjoy many well-paying commissions and fame as a result and one such opportunity was presented by the BBC in 1947 which went on to become his Sinfonietta. Although many musicologists have alluded to some ‘structural weaknesses’ within the work due to such contrasting styles, Poulenc’s complex emotional character is what gives this piece its dynamism and to quote the composer “don’t analyse my music – love it!”.

The story of Mozart’s final three symphonies is a remarkable one. He wrote all three pieces within the space of about nine weeks in 1788, as well as writing other works and simultaneously dealing with immense personal struggles. However, his Symphony No.40 is an iconic and instantly recognisable work that has been widely used in TV and film and possibly most frustratingly for classical music lovers, a catchy ringtone in the 1990s, and yet it’s power to draw the listener in is still as strong today as it was over 230 years ago.

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