CPSO Summer Concert

About

The City of Peterborough Symphony Orchestra Summer 2019 concert. The concert programme will include:

Haydn -Symphony No.101 (Clock)

Mozart - Horn Concerto No. 3
Soloist: Tim Rausch

Rossini - The Italian Girl in Algiers

Mendelssohn - Italian Symphony

Conductor - Steve Bingham

“The inexhaustible, the wonderful, the sublime Haydn!” In early 1795, at the invitation of the impresario Johann Peter Salomon, Haydn paid his second visit to London presenting six new rapturously-received symphonies, including the famous number 101, “the Clock”. From its mysterious introduction, the lively rising opening theme, through the tick-tocking of the slow and minuet movements, to the vigorous finale, it is a truly uplifting work.

Now for two prodigies ! Mozart was in his 30s when he composed his tuneful 3rd horn concerto. This was the composer’s mature period and the three-movement concerto shows endearing warmth and tenderness, demonstrating his profound understanding of the mellow qualities of the instrument. Rossini was the greatest opera composer of his age, and of his 40 operas the comic “Italian Girl in Algiers” was one of the most popular, written in 1813 when he was only 21. The typically witty and tuneful overture starts with a pianissimo pizzicato, passes through angular woodwind themes and is full of orchestral devices and surprises.

Mendelssohn sketched out his Symphony no.4 during a tour of Italy in 1831, hence the nickname “The Italian”. A work full of dazzling variety and brilliance, the joyful allegro vivace first movement, is followed by an andante impression of a religious procession the composer witnessed in Naples. The third movement is a graceful moderato minuet, while the presto finale incorporates the Roman saltarello and Neapolitan tarantella dances.