MasterClef - Auckland Youth Symphony Orchestra Concert

Join the Auckland Youth Symphony Orchestra at their final concert for 2011: MasterClef

Elgar - Serenade for Strings
Weber - Clarinet Concerto No. 2
Beethoven - Symphony No. 4

Soloist: Natalie Harris
Conductor: Antun Poljanich

Other concerts in this programme:
Thames High School, Saturday 8 October 2.00pm
Whitianga Town Hall, Sunday 9 October, 2.30pm
Mahurangi College Warkworth, Saturday 15 October 4.30pm
Forum North Whangarei, Sunday 16 October 2.30pm

Elgar - Serenade for Strings
Elgar was still virtually unknown outside his native Worcester area when this Serenade was written in 1888. Throughout his life, Elgar retained a particular affection for this short work, not surprisingly, for it is both beautifully written and also wholly characteristic in the contrasts between carefree melody and melancholic introspection.

Weber - Clarinet Concerto No. 2
As a young man, Carl Maria von Weber was a bit of a Bohemian. He spent much of his later teens singing and accompanying himself on guitar in the local pubs. At the age of 18, he was just beginning to make his mark in opera, both as singer and impresario. Unfortunately, he ruined his singing voice when he accidentally swallowed some concentrated nitric acid that his father (who was trying to establish an engraving business at the time) had foolishly stored in a wine jug.

Loss of his singing voice forced him to fall back on his modest keyboard training for a performing career; he steadily improved his skill until he became one of the greater pianists of his time. Meanwhile, he also composed. The Second Clarinet Concerto may be the best of his wind concerti. It shows off the soloist in the context of a broad range of expressiveness. Even though the fast outer movements require considerable technique, they are much more than studies in pyrotechnics.

Beethoven - Symphony No. 4
It is known that Beethoven was already at work on his fifth symphony, having virtually completed the first two movements, when he returned to complete this B flat work in 1806. All through his middle period Beethoven seems to have felt the need for relieving the intense concentration of his idealistic works by writing others of a more genial human character. Following the mighty Eroica symphony, the Fourth is generally seen as a moment of calm in the composer’s symphonic development.