Please note: This concert is in the past and has already taken place.

Details

King's School Macclesfield
Alderley Road
Prestbury
Macclesfield
Cheshire
SK10 4SP
England

Programme

Frederick Delius – On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
Frederick Delius – A Song before Sunrise
Caroline Shaw – and the swallow
Ralph Vaughan Williams – The Lark Ascending
Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony no.6 in F major 'Pastoral', Op.68

Performers

Zoe Beyers – violin / director

Northern Chamber Orchestra

Other concerts in this Season

Beethoven's Emperor

Music of Innocence

Gloria in Excelsis Deo

Northern Winds Unleashed

Mainly Baroque

Death and the Maiden

Beethoven and Music of the Dance

Programme Note

Many composers have turned to nature for inspiration and this programme reflects some of the finest examples. Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending needs no introduction, even though it has been dislodged from first to second place in the Classic FM Hall of Fame 2023. The titles given by Beethoven to the movements of the Pastoral Symphony (e.g. ‘Awakening of cheerful feelings on arriving in the country’) might suggest programmatic music but, as one expects with Beethoven, he was less interested in delightful pictures than the emotions they elicit. Two miniature tone poems by Delius reveal his impressionistic skills, whilst and the swallow by the contemporary American composer, Caroline Shaw, is a simple but touching arrangement of her choral setting of Psalm 84.

Zoë Beyers directs the NCO for the first time and is the soloist in The Lark Ascending. In 2020 she was appointed leader of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and appears regularly as guest leader with many other orchestras including the Hallé, RLPO, BBC Symphony, CBSO, Philharmonia and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Music and Nature

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