Salomon Past Concerts - 17 June 2003 at SJSS

Oliver Gooch Conductor

Britten 4 Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes

Harris Symphony No.3

Stravinsky Petrushka (1947 version)

Petrushka curtain design by Benois

Britten 4 Sea Interludes

Whilst in America in 1941 Britten read E.M. Forster's study of the Suffolk poet George Crabbe. Inspiration from the poetry of Suffolk and East Anglia contributed to Britten's decision to return to England. Coincidentally during his time in New York Britten and Peter Pears performed chamber concerts in Southold in Suffolk County - Albert Einstein was once in the audience. Britten's 1945 masterpiece Peter Grimes was adapted from Crabbe's The Borough and it brought him international recognition for opera. The Sea Interludes from the opera are Dawn, Sunday Morning, Moonlight and Storm. 

Harris Symphony No.3

Roy Harris was a leader amongst America's 20th Century nationalist composers. Like Copland and Bernstein he went to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger - this after 4 years spent as a truck driver. He was the first American to conduct his own works in Russia, directing the Leningrad Philharmonic, and with his concert-pianist wife Johana was invited to the White House by many administrations including that of JFK. (Johana, renamed from Beulah on Roy's request in honour of Johann Sebastian Bach, also played chamber music with Einstein). Son Shaun continues the music tradition as a singer song-writer and award-winning producer, and has performed on-stage with people as diverse as the Osmonds and the Grateful Dead.

The Third Symphony of 1939 remains Harris' most celebrated. It became a sensation as the right music at the right time, as Harris recognised, for Americans and British in the early years of World War 2, and was recently performed at the BBC Proms.

Stravinsky Petrushka (1947 version)

Petrushka, first performed in the Ballet Russes in 1911, has the orchestra imitating mechanical instruments such as the barrel organ above the bubbling emotions, reinforcing the picture of Petrushka's human heart in a puppet's body.

Stravinsky became an American citizen in 1945, and set about protecting and reinforcing the copyright on earlier works. This also was helpful in correcting errors in earlier publications, but with Petrushka it brought about extensive re-orchestration.

©Salomon Orchestra

2006

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