When concerts and even rehearsals were thrown into disarray between lockdowns last year, the orchestra really enjoyed reading through Handel's op. 6 concerti grossi. Naturally, when it came to planning our 21/22 season we wanted to share our wonderful experience with audiences, so each of this year's concerts will feature one of our favourite op. 6 works.
Our first outing will be on Thursday 18th November's at 12.30 pm at St John’s Church, Harrow - when we will also play Grażyna Bacewicz's Concerto for String Orchestra. Written in 1948, it's a thrilling modern take on the idea of a concerto grosso. The outer movements teem with irrepressible life and vigour, whilst the reflective middle movement divides the orchestra into many parts in sumptuous Hollywood-tinged harmony.
Grażyna Bacewicz photo: CAF/PAP
To complete the programme, conductor Dan Shilladay has arranged the huge central adagio of Beethoven's string quartet op. 132 for full string orchestra. Beethoven wrote the piece after recovering from an illness he feared might be fatal; he wrote on the score "Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit" ("Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity") and the more energetic sections which alternate with the opening corale-like music he titled "Neue Kraft fühlend" ("feeling new strength"). Profoundly, supremely beautiful, it seemed to sum up all of our thoughts and hopes about music, about ourselves, after the strictures of the previous eighteen months.