VENUE:
St John's Church Waterloo
Waterloo Road,
London, SE1 8TY
Conductor Adrian Brown
Leader: Ellen Gallagher
Programme:
ELGAR WAND OF YOUTH SUITE,
IN THE SOUTH, NURSERY SUITE and
DELIUS VIOLIN CONCERTO
with soloist Sasha Rozhdestvensky
Conductor Adrian Brown
Leader: Ellen Gallagher
ELGAR WAND OF YOUTH SUITE No.2, IN THE SOUTH and NURSERY SUITE, and DELIUS VIOLIN CONCERTO with soloist Sasha Rozhdestvensky
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Conductor Adrian Brown
Leader: Ellen Gallagher
Programme:
MacCunn: Overture:
‘The Land of the Mountain
and the Flood’
Delius Violin Concerto
with soloist Michael Foyle
Elgar: Symphonic Study: ‘Falstaff’
performance supported by
funds from the Delius Trust
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the London Branch of the Elgar Society
Conductor Adrian Brown
Leader: Ellen Gallagher
Programme:
Overture: ‘Cockaigne’ (In London Town)
‘Sea Pictures’ with soloist Diana Moore
‘Polonia’ Op. 76
Suite: ‘The Crown of India’
Bring a Teddy Bear!
Conductor Adrian Brown
Leader: Ryo Koyama
Programme:
Elgar ‘Wand of Youth Suite’
Elgar ‘Nursery Suite’
Coates ‘The Three Bears Phantasy’
Elgar ‘In The South’
Conductor Adrian Brown
Leader: Ryo Koyama
Programme:
Elgar Symphony no.1
orchestral excerpts and explanations by Adrian Brown and ESL
Conductor Adrian Brown
Leader: Ryo Koyama
Programme:
Elgar ‘The Light of Life’
Parry ‘Blest Pair of Sirens’
Corps Symphony no.2
with The London Chorus
Assistant Conductor
Herman Ringer
Born in Argentina, Herman Ringer held a position for 15 years in the orchestra of the Teatro Argentina de La Plata (the State Opera of Buenos Aires) in the first violins, and in January 2018 moved to London to pursue a career as conductor specializing in ballet.
He was leader in a South American tour playing Cosi Fan Tutte and another playing a Mozart based symphonic program. He also played with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic and Teatro Colon orchestras.
Abroad, he performed in Brazil and was invited for three international tours with the Youth Orchestra Of The Americas, working under the baton of Placido Domingo, Gustavo Dudamel, Benjamin Zander and Carlos Miguel Prieto. In London he collaborated with the Lambeth Orchestra and I Maestri.
In popular music, he played with and arranged strings and woodwinds for mainstream and up and coming artists in Argentina alike.
Since 2013 he started his conducting studies in the Collegium Music of Buenos Aires under Maestro Mauricio Weintraub, and in the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Buenos Aires under Maestro Carlos Vieu.
He also participated in the ballet conducting seminar under Maestro Emmanuel Siffert (Switzerland) and the George Hurst Conducting Course under Maestro Saglimbeni, Denise Ham and John Longstaff,
while also taking private lessons with the major conductors of Argentina, including Pedro Ignacio Calderón (assistant to Leonard Bernstein and winner of the Mitropoulos Prize), Jorge Rotter (chief of conducting in the Salzburg Mozarteum) and Luis Gorelik among others. In England he took private classes with Barry Wordsworth.
In June 2018 made his London debut as a conductor with the London Moonlight Symphony Orchestra, at St John’s Smith Square, Westminster.
In September 2019, Herman was invited to become the conductor of the Salisbury Sinfonia. In 2021 he became assistant conductor of Midsummer Opera and the Elgar Sinfonia of London.
Conductor Adrian Brown
Leader: Ryo Koyama
Programme:
Elgar Symphony no. 2
orchestral excerpts and explanations by Adrian Brown and ESL
Several members of the London branch attended the latest concert, on 23 June, by the Elgar Sinfonia of London under its distinguished conductor Adrian Brown. This was a particularly interesting programme as it included two works heard very rarely nowadays, Elgar’s ‘Symphony’ for chorus and orchestra, The Black Knight, Op.25, and the Piano Concerto of 1939 by Sir Arthur Bliss.
Elgar’s work, dating from 1892/3, is a setting of an English
translation by Henry Longfellow of a poem by German romantic poet Ludwig Uhland. It has to be said that the English text is especially dated and does not read well these days. Elgar, though, was clearly inspired by this rather dark story of a knight in the crusades and gives us music of characteristic nobility, lyricism and dramatic impact, allied to fine choral writing and superb orchestration, the music often containing pre-echoes of the many great works to come. The score was well realised by the orchestra and the London Choir, although the acoustics in the church (St Andrew’s, Holborn) did not allow the choir to come across with full power in the biggest moments where they had to compete against a full brass section as well as the rest of the orchestral tumult. The quieter and more reflective moments showed the choir’s delicacy of tonal blend and firmness of overall sound. The whole ensemble was held together superbly by Adrian Brown, who is clearly a passionate advocate of this music, and we are in his debt for allowing us to hear a work which is hardly ever performed.
The other major work in the programme, likewise seldom
performed, the Piano Concerto by Sir Arthur Bliss, was given a performance demonstrating that this superb 20th-century concerto deserves reassessment. Written for the great British pianist Solomon for performance at the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and conducted at that first performance by another Adrian, Sir Adrian Boult, the concerto is very much in the tradition of romantic 19th/early 20th-century concertos such as those by Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, but with more modern asperities to spice up the musical language.
The soloist in this performance, Rustam Khanmurzin, Russian trained and latterly studying at the Royal College of Music, gave a quite extraordinary performance of this thoroughly virtuosic work, from the volcanic double octaves at the piano’s first entry to the storming, climactic moments against the full orchestra in both outer movements. These big moments are thrown into relief by the many beautiful passages of lyricism and the colourful orchestration. The reception by the capacity audience, which included the composer’s granddaughter, was tumultuous.
The concert concluded on a considerable high with the magnificent and wonderfully rousing Triumphal March from Elgar’s Caractacus, given with full choral forces.
Stephen Dickinson
Review by Stephen Dickinson
Elgar Sinfonia of London
Adrian Brown conducts:
Elgar ‘The Black knight’
Elgar ‘Triumphal March from Caractacus’
with the London Chorus (director Ronald Corp)
Bliss Piano Concerto
with Rustam Khanmurzin
Sunday, June 23rd 2024, St Andrew’s, Holborn, London
Several members of the London branch attended the latest concert, on 23 June, by the Elgar Sinfonia of London under its distinguished
conductor Adrian Brown. This was a particularly interesting
programme as it included two works heard very rarely nowadays,
Elgar’s ‘Symphony’ for chorus and orchestra, The Black Knight,
Op.25, and the Piano Concerto of 1939 by Sir Arthur Bliss.
Elgar’s work, dating from 1892/3, is a setting of an English
translation by Henry Longfellow of a poem by German romantic poet
Ludwig Uhland. It has to be said that the English text is especially
dated and does not read well these days. Elgar, though, was clearly
inspired by this rather dark story of a knight in the crusades and
gives us music of characteristic nobility, lyricism and dramatic
impact, allied to fine choral writing and superb orchestration, the
music often containing pre-echoes of the many great works to
come. The score was well realised by the orchestra and the London
Choir, although the acoustics in the church (St Andrew’s, Holborn)
did not allow the choir to come across with full power in the biggest
moments where they had to compete against a full brass section
as well as the rest of the orchestral tumult. The quieter and more reflective moments showed the choir’s delicacy of tonal blend and firmness of overall sound. The whole ensemble was held together superbly by Adrian Brown, who is clearly a passionate advocate of this music, and we are in his debt for allowing us to hear a work which is hardly ever performed.
The other major work in the programme, likewise seldom
performed, the Piano Concerto by Sir Arthur Bliss, was given a performance demonstrating that this superb 20th-century concerto deserves reassessment. Written for the great British pianist Solomon for performance at the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and conducted at that first performance by another Adrian, Sir Adrian Boult, the concerto is very much in the tradition of romantic 19th/early 20th-century concertos such as those by Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, but with more modern asperities to spice up the musical language.
The soloist in this performance, Rustam Khanmurzin, Russiantrained and latterly studying at the Royal College of Music, gave a quite extraordinary performance of this thoroughly virtuosic work, from the volcanic double octaves at the piano’s first entry to the
storming, climactic moments against the full orchestra in both outer
movements. These big moments are thrown into relief by the many
beautiful passages of lyricism and the colourful orchestration. The
reception by the capacity audience, which included the composer’s
granddaughter, was tumultuous.
The concert concluded on a considerable high with the magnificent
and wonderfully rousing Triumphal March from Elgar’s Caractacus,
given with full choral forces.
Stephen Dickinson
Conductor Adrian Brown
Leader: Ryo Koyama
Programme:
Bliss:
Piano Concerto
Soloist: Rustam Khanmurzin
Elgar:
“The Black Knight”
Featuring The London Chorus, director Ronald Corp