Displaying a prominent role for harp, English folk music forms the inspiration for Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus and this resonant work has become a firm favourite with listeners of Classic FM.
The young Benjamin Britten took just 10 days to re-work a theme by Frank Bridge, and his brilliant variations were dedicated to his teacher “with affection and admiration”. Partly inspired by early dance forms, that were to become a recurring feature in his work, the movements being brilliantly reimagined for a contemporary audience include a Bourrée, a Viennese Waltz, a powerfully heart-felt Funeral March, and an eerie religious ‘Chant’.
By contrast, the programme also includes a performance of Anton Arensky’s solemn and noble Tchaikovsky variations based on a moving anthem, which will be widely known to choirs as The Crown of Roses.
The programme is book-ended by Henry Purcell’s beautiful Chacony, arranged by Britten, and Gustav Holst’s ever-popular St Paul’s Suite, written for the girl’s school of that name and providing a splendidly lyrical and foot-tapping completion to the programme.
“This is an opportunity for us to showcase some of our favourite repertoire works alongside Britten’s superb Frank Bridge Variations, said conductor, Janet Lincé. This stupendous work has long been on our wish-list and we can’t wait to perform it in contrast with a group of other beautiful Variations.”
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