Kabalevsky, Korngold, Weinberg
St. John's Smith Square, February 11, 2024. 16:30
The Salomon Orchestra welcomes Philip Hesketh back to conduct our February concert: Philip worked with us in 2014, 2016 and 2019. We look forward to working with him again on this exciting programme.
Salomon is also pleased to welcome back Fenella Humphreys to perform Korngolds’ glorious violin concerto after her wonderful performance of the Grace Williams concerto last year (February 2023).
Philip Hesketh - Conductor
Having played in orchestras since childhood, it is natural that a large part of Philip’s work should be in the concert hall. He is the Musical Director of the West London Sinfonia and the Norfolk Symphony Orchestra and appears as a guest conductor regularly with professional and amateur orchestras in the UK and abroad. He has a vast knowledge of the repertoire and has given concerts and recorded with the Belgrade Philharmonic, The Yuri Bashmet Orchestra, the National Philharmonic of Moldova, the Orchestra Della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, the Orchestra of the Wiener Volksoper and the Wiener Residenz Orchester in Vienna, and the Olsztyn State Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland. In addition to his symphonic programmes, Philip has regularly given ‘Pops’ concerts, including outdoor ‘Proms’ and Viennese Evenings, both in the UK and Vienna.
Fenella Humphreys - Violin
Photograph: Matt Smith
Fenella’s playing has been described in the press as “alluring”, “unforgettable”, and “a wonder”. Winner of the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Instrumental Award, Fenella is one of the UK’s most established and versatile violinists. She enjoys a busy career combining chamber music with solo work in the world’s most prestigious venues and is frequently featured on the BBC, Classic FM, Scala Radio and international radio stations.
Her recent album of Sibelius’ solo works with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and George Vass featured in BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library, Gramophone Magazine’s Guide to the Concerto, and was Album of the Week on Scala Radio. BBC Music Magazine has written of the recording: it takes an unusually fine artist to be able to bridge the two extremes. Fenella Humphreys’s playing is a genuine revelation in the way it brings out the music’s dark and introspective qualities with no shortage of technical panache.
Programme
Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904 - 1987) - Colas Breugnon Overture (1938)
Colas Breugnon is a Russian-language opera in three acts by Dmitry Kabalevsky, also known as The Master-Craftsman of Clamecy. The libretto by V. Bragin is based on Romain Rolland's novel about a fictional Burgundian optimist named Colas Breugnon set in 16th-century Clamecy, Nièvre. The opera premiered under the direction of Samosud in Leningrad in 1938. The opera is best known for its "rollicking" overture.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 - 1957) - Violin Concerto (1945)
With the end of World War II, Korngold retired from films to concentrate on music for the concert hall. The Violin Concerto was the first such work that Korngold penned, following some initial persuasion from the violinist and fellow émigré Bronisław Huberman. Korngold had been hurt by the assumption that a successful film composer was one who had sold his integrity to Hollywood, just as earlier he had been hurt by many critics' assumptions that his works were performed only because he was the son of music critic Julius Korngold. He was thus determined to prove himself with a work that combined vitality and superb craftsmanship.
Korngold is unique in that he was both a classical composer and a highly successful Hollywood film composer. The Violin Concerto, like some of his other classical works, shows the influence of his film music compositions. His experience in film scoring is evident in the concerto's dramatic and cinematic qualities.
The first movement introduces a grand, sweeping theme, followed by a mesmerizing display of the soloist's technical capabilities. The second, in contrast, is sweet, lyrical and deeply heartfelt. Though originally intended for the violinist Bronislaw Huberman the first performance was given by Jascha Heifetz, who demanded yet more brilliance. This is amply displayed in the dazzling, technically demanding finale that showcases the soloist's virtuosity, sumptuously accompanied by the orchestra. Afterwards, Korngold wrote:
In spite of the demand for virtuosity in the finale, the work, with its many melodic and lyric episodes, was contemplated more for a Caruso than for a Paganini. It is needless to say how delighted I am to have my concerto performed by Caruso and Paganini in one person: Jascha Heifetz.
Mieczysław Weinberg (1919 - 1996) - Symphony No. 3 (1949)
Weinberg was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1919. He was a prolific composer known for his chamber music, symphonies, and operas. His family had deep ties to music, and he began composing from an early age. In 1939, as World War II broke out, Weinberg fled to the Soviet Union to escape the Nazi occupation of Poland.
Weinberg's Symphony No. 3 was composed in 1949, in the post-war period when the Soviet Union was under Joseph Stalin's regime. During this time, many artists and composers in the Soviet Union faced censorship and political pressure to conform to socialist realism, an artistic style that promoted positive depictions of Soviet life. Weinberg, who had experienced the horrors of war and the Holocaust, used his music to address themes that were deeply personal and, at times, critical of the Soviet system.
Based on many Russian folk elements, its easy melodic and rhythmic fluidity is rarely heard from any mid-20th-century composers. The beautiful and melancholy Adagio movement reveals its origin with sad, gripping and skilful scoring for strings. The boisterous final movement is reminiscent of the writing of his friend Shostakovich, with a few typical rhythmic gestures, military drum rolls, orchestration, and climactic moments with a coda to match. A short symphony packed with inventiveness, creative ideas, and, most of all, a writing skill matched by few others. A rarely performed work that we are excited to perform.