News Archives - Page 9 of 15 - London Firebird Orchestra

Brahms the Symphonist

03/03/2019

For the next concert Firebird turns its hand to the First Symphony of Brahms which has lasted through the centuries thanks to its verve, freedom and complexity. But it didn’t start off quite like that…

It was around 1854 when Brahms began sketches for a Symphony in D minor. But it soon underwent radical change until it was finally recast as his first Piano Concerto in D minor. Nevertheless there was great expectation that Brahms should compose a symphony. The music of Beethoven cast a long shadow over the 19th century and audiences saw Brahms as his natural successor.

So producing a symphony which could continue that legacy brought with it perhaps unrealistic demands on a young composer in his early twenties, understandably in awe of producing a symphony of commensurate dignity and intellectual scope as any of the nine symphonies of Beethoven. In addition, Brahms was fastidiously self-critical of his work which led him to destroy many of his early compositions.

It was not until 1868 when Brahms began to see the final structure of his First Symphony taking shape. In September of that year, he sent a card to his lifelong friend Clara Schumann sketching the Alphorn tune from the Finale with the message ‘Thus blew the shepherd’s horn today!’

Yet progress was still slow and the Symphony would not premiere for another eight years. In 1873, the success of his Variations on a theme by Haydn for orchestra brought the composer a new burst of encouragement and he cautiously started to continue the work he had started years before. Schumann had also been encouraging him from the sidelines saying that all his friends had awaited this work for decades.

It was to take Brahms until he was 44 before his First Symphony would eventually be premiered on 4 November 1876. But even after the premiere Brahms was apprehensively planning five more trial performances before he could be completed satisfied.

The conductor for the Symphony’s premiere, Hans von Bülow, referred to it as ‘Beethoven’s Tenth’. There are indeed a few quotes and references to Beethoven if you listen carefully, but it’s more in the style of a homage. As Brahms himself commented, ‘any ass can see that.’

Join London Firebird Orchestra in the spectacular central London venue of St George’s Hanover Square for a wonderful evening of music including this great works from the very heart of European classical music.

Mendelssohn in March

Due to unforeseeable circumstances, we are sorry to announce that Aleksei Kiseliov is unable to be with us at this concert. Aleksei has longstanding and very close links with the orchestra and we are sure that he will be joining us at a future concert soon. He is very sorry not to be able to perform at our next concert.

On a very happy note however, we are delighted to confirm that the legendary cellist Raphael Wallfisch has kindly agreed to join us in the performance of the Schumann Concerto. The orchestra performed with the celebrated Maestro in 2015 and we are honoured to collaborate with him once again with this concert.

Mendelssohn in March

18/02/2019

A mysterious Overture, a heart-rending Cello Concerto and a great Beethovenian inspired Symphony: These are the magical ingredients of the next Firebird concert on 14 March…

London’s St George’s Hanover Square is the venue for this spellbinding concert of classical masterpieces. We welcome the return to the podium of Australian conductor Michael Thrift (pictured) to direct this inspiring concert together with the dazzling young Russian cellist, Aleksei Kiseliov

Mendelssohn wrote his Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dreamin 1826 when he was just 17 years old. Music scholar George Grove called it ‘the greatest marvel of early maturity that the world has ever seen in music’. However, he was not to write the incidental music for the rest of the play until 1842, only a few years before his death.

Schumann wrote his enigmatic Cello Concerto in A minor in just two weeks in October 1850 having recently become music director in Düsseldorf – yet it was never performed in his lifetime. It stands alongside the cello concertos of Dvořák and Elgar as the three great Romantic works for this instrument.

In contrast, it took Brahms at least fourteen years before he completed his first symphony. He was under the shadow of Beethoven with an unrealistic expectation that he should somehow continue ‘Beethoven’s inheritance’ and produce a symphony of commensurate dignity and intellectual scope. However, he finally did it in 1876!

Join London Firebird Orchestra in this spectacular central London venue for a wonderful evening of music with these three great works from the very heart of European classical music in the 19th century.

MENDELSSOHN IN MARCH

Thursday 14 March 2019 7.30pm
St George’s Hanover Square, London

Mendelssohn Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream in E major, Op. 21
Schumann Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129
Brahms Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op. 68

Michael Thrift conductor
Aleksei Kiseliov cello

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Sunday Night in Oxford

07/02/2019

Firebird takes to the road on Sunday for a fabulous programme in Oxford promising some of the finest classical music in the repertoire by Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven.

Mozart’s spellbindingly energetic overture to his comic opera, The Magic Flute, opens the concert and immediately transports us to a fairy-tale land of magical instruments, serpents and sorcerers.

Firebird’s Artistic Director Marc Corbett-Weaver will be the piano soloist,pitted against the full weight of the symphony orchestra under the baton of George Jackson, in Tchaikovsky’s magnificent and much loved Concerto No.1 for Piano and Orchestra.

Beethoven’s mighty 5th Symphony – described by ETA Hoffman as ‘one of the most important works of the time’ – will be performed after the interval. Its famous opening notes have made this one of the most recognisable pieces in history.

The wonderful venue of Oxford’s St John the Evangelist will provide the setting for this fantastic concert of classical greats ensuring this will certainly be a Firebird night to remember.

Note the early start time at 6pm.

Firebird in February

Sunday 10 February 2019
St John-the-Evangelist, Oxford @ 6pm

Generously sponsored by the Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation

Mozart Overture to The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) K. 620
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1in Bb minor, Op. 23
Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67

George Jackson conductor
Marc Corbett-Weaver piano

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Beethoven’s 5th

03/02/2019

The distinctive opening of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony heralds the start of one of the best-known compositions in classical music, and which E.T.A.Hoffmann described as ‘one of the most important works of the time’.

The Symphony No. 5 was originally given the name ‘Schicksals-Sinfonie’ (symphony of destiny). Just 30 thirty years after its composition the distinctive rhythm of the opening four notes was used for the letter ‘V’ in Morse code. During World War II, the BBC prefaced its European broadcasts with the Symphony’s opening four notes, played on drums. As a result it also became know as the Victory Symphony: ‘V for Victory’ being the well known campaign message of the Allies.

Composed between 1804 and 1808, The Symphony No. 5 in C minor Op. 67 soon acquired its status as a central item in the orchestral repertoire. The immediately recognisable opening motif has appeared frequently in popular culture, from disco versions to rock and roll covers, to film, TV and video games…

By 1837 Liszt had completed transcriptions of Beethoven’s 5th, 6th and 7th Symphonies for solo piano
Played at the inaugural concerts of the New York Philharmonic in 1842
First recording of the 5th Symphony in 1910
In 1965 Chuck Berry brought out ‘Roll Over Beethoven’

Japanese band Takeshi Terauchi & Bunnys, recorded Let’s Go Unmei in 1967 – Japanese live action series featuring the character Beethoven Soul who chants the the first four notes of the opening: ‘Melody! Destiny! Jajajajan!’
Walter Murphy adapted the opening for the 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever.
Included on a recording sent into outer space aboard the 1977 Voyager probes.
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra includes an extract in its 1981 ‘Hooked on Classics’
Video game Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp features the Symphony in Dirk’s encounter with Beethoven.

An adaptation appears as the theme song for the TV show Judge Judy.
A 2015 Doctor Who episode features Beethoven’s 5th in the context of the ‘bootstrap paradox’ with actor Peter Capaldi playing an electric guitar.

Beethoven dedicated the Symphony to two of his patrons, Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz and Count Razumovsky. But when he conducted its premiere at the Theater an der Wien it was part of a mammoth four hours concert which also included his 6th Symphony, 4th Piano Concerto, Choral Fantasy, excerpts from the Mass in C Major, an aria and a solo piano improvisation with the composer at the piano.

Apparently the orchestra did not play well being under-rehearsed. At one point Beethoven had to stop the music and start again. The auditorium was extremely cold and the audience was exhausted by the length of the programme. Nevertheless, just over a year later, publication of the score resulted in a rapturous review by music critic E. T. A. Hoffmann describing it as: ‘indescribably profound, magnificent symphony in C minor’.

Beethoven was now in his mid-thirties and troubled by increasing deafness. There was also increasing turmoil across Europe with the Napoleonic Wars and occupation of Vienna. At the time Beethoven was an admirer of Napoleon and the final movement quotes from a revolutionary song by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.

Beethoven in 1804, the year he began work on the Fifth Symphony; detail of a portrait by W. J. Mähler

And on 10 February, 211 years after it was first performed in Vienna, Firebird in February presents Beethoven’s 5th as part of a sumptuous evening of great classics in Oxford.

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Glowing review for Firebird

19/01/2019

In the latest edition of highly respected magazine Musical Opinion, amongst reviews for the likes of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is a glowing review of London Firebird Orchestra…

First published in 1877 with a critical review of Brahms’ new Second Symphony, Musical Opinion is Britain’s oldest classical music magazine. 130 years on, Musical Opinion has subscribers in over 38 countries.

The January – March 2019 edition carried a full page review of Firebird’s Egmont in October concert conducted by George Jackson.

Of the opening Beethoven Overture the review said:

‘conductor George Jackson painting picturesque orchestral colours that captured the darkness and suspense of its introduction…. with a splendidly rousing and energetic final section, complete with a vivid sense of Beethovenian victory.’

Bruch’s seductively popular G minor Violin Concerto was equally popular, with soloist Leonard Schreiber:

‘offering a full-blown virtuosic account. Schreiber’s intense passion for the music was enchanting, while each note finely executed from his Mezzadri violin rang like a bell through the clear acoustic: there was singing lyricism and dashing liveliness.’

Praise too for the young English soprano Verity Wingate who stunned the audience with a captivating performance of ‘Song to the Moon’ from Rusalka. In the concert’s main event, Dvorák’s Symphony No. 8, conductor George Jackson ‘revealed a real understanding of the symphony’s structure and form, offering an altogether mature account full of authentic Bohemian dialect’ .

Leonard Schreiber, George Jackson and Verity Wingate

The review also noted ‘some particularly fine solo work in the wind…’, and ‘a rich and authentically Bohemian string sound, with chocolatey dark colours from the lower strings…’

And summing up…

‘The Orchestra can look forward to a long and distinguished future… London is in for a Treat!’

So Firebird is well and truly on the musical map. And not just in London, because the next Firebird concert is in Oxford with Firebird in February…

Firebird in February

Sunday 10 February 6pm
St John-the-Evangelist Oxford

Mozart Overture to Die Zauberflöte K. 620
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in Bb minor, Op. 23
Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67

George Jackson conductor
Marc Corbett-Weaver piano

Generously Sponsored by the Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation

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A dazzling programme for 2019

06/01/2019

A very Happy New Year from the London Firebird Orchestra as we look forward to the continuation of our dazzling programme of concerts throughout 2019 featuring some of the brightest rising stars in the world of music today…

Firebird in February

Sunday 10 February 2019 6pm
St John-the-Evangelist Oxford

Generously Sponsored by the Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation, a Firebird night to remember. with a welcome return to this fantastic venue in Oxford. This concert features some of the finest classical music in the repertoire culminating in Beethoven’s 5th Symphony – described as ‘one of the most important works of the time”.

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Mendelssohn in March

Thursday 14 March 2019 7.30pm
St George’s Hanover Square, London

Mendelssohn’s mysterious overture forms the magical opening to a concert of music from the heart of 19th century European classical music which also includes Schumann’s heart-rending Cello Concerto before Brahm’s Beethoven inspired First Symphony.

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Firebird for Schools

Wednesday 22 May 2019 2pm
St George’s Hanover Square, London

This new tailor-made concert for schoolchildren will introducing young people to the magical world of the orchestra. As part of the Charity’s outreach work this event is a partnership between Firebird, London Music Masters and state schools from a range of London boroughs.

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Sibelius in Summer

Tuesday 11 June 2019 7.30pm
St George’s Hanover Square, London

A magical concert featuring a new work by the winner of the Firebird Composer of the Year competition alongside favourites which include Paganini’s ravishing Second Violin Concerto and Sibelius’s enchanting 5th Symphony.

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View from the Rostrum

02/12/2018

‘George Jackson raised the stature of the music to a rarely-encountered level, absolutely enthralling from first bar to last.’
Robert Matthew-Walker, Classical Source

This month we hear from one of Firebird’s conductors, George Jackson, conductor of our next concert, Firebird in February on 10 Feb …

George Jackson in action (pictured by Brian Hatton)

We look forward to the next concert ‘Firebird in February’ featuring music by Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven. What unites these works?

“What interests me is the common material that includes either the number three, or the use of three notes in a motivic sense. With Mozart’s overture to ‘the Magic Flute’, we find three flats in the key signature, as well as the three ‘holy’ chords that begin the overture. In the Beethoven Symphony No 5, which has the same three flats in the key signature, the symphony begins and then develops the famous motif that runs through the whole symphony: yes, it is technically four notes, but it’s those three upbeats that are the most important. And finally, we all know the opening three-upbeat theme from Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto. I love finding abstract connections between pieces and placing them together. It’s perhaps the closest conductors get to creating a three-course meal (there’s a reason the French call us the ‘chef d’orchestre’!)”

What makes Firebird the perfect vehicle for a performance of music like this?

“One of the unique qualities of London players is their ability to switch styles in a heartbeat. Firebird musicians are no different. I am always amazed at the orchestra’s ability to ‘time travel’ within a concert. Although the style differences in this programme are not too extreme, there is still a subtle change required. The challenge in this type of programme is approaching each piece looking forwards chronologically, rather than backwards and with hindsight. This makes the interpretation of the Beethoven Fifth more challenging, because I am convinced we still tend to approach this symphony backwards, through the glasses of mid-, or even late-, nineteenth century. So many composers receive this kind of ‘backwards with hindsight’ treatment, and I think it’s important to try and block it out. The beauty of playing Mozart in the same evening is that it provides the backdrop that our approach to Beethoven can develop from.”

How can you bring something fresh and exciting to such well-known and often performed works like these?

“There’s a youthful, fiery energy in this orchestra, living up to its name, and with much potential to make these performances fresh and exciting. Although these are well known and often performed works, we are a young orchestra with young players. For many of us, this is the first time performing these pieces, even though they are all so central to the repertoire. One of the regrets I think we musicians always have is that we can never ‘un-hear’ the opening to Beethoven’s Fifth, so the shock value is lost on modern audiences. I remember one conducting mentor once trying to convince me that the opening notes of the symphony (G-E flat, followed by F-D) are really in E flat major, rather than C minor, making the harmony after the fermatas the real shock! I don’t think it’s possible to prove this theory, but the point still stands: we have to try and re-present well-known pieces for the first time, and that process is more accessible to a younger group. I hope Firebird can go some way to recreating the feeling that the ink is still wet – which is what can make this performance so exciting?”

What do you expect to be the main areas you will need to focus on during the rehearsal of these works?

“Reading the dots! It’s a short rehearsal time, more like a microwave meal for one, rather than slow-cooked lamb for the Waltons. But the trick is to try and add in as much detail as possible at the right moment, and that is about timing. The Firebird Orchestra is a small-sized chamber orchestra, reflected by the number of string forces. I want to focus on finding a big string sound for the Tchaikovsky, despite the small numbers, which is possible – it just involves a shift in priorities. And then, once we find that sound, forgetting it just as quickly so we can bring a different quality to ‘The Magic Flute’ and the Beethoven Fifth. Although all this has to happen in minimal rehearsal time, it creates a working environment that is short and intense, and I think that can sometimes lead to the best results.”

And what else is in the pipeline for you in 2019?

“The current season is a 50/50 split between concerts and opera, which is something I always try to proportion equally. In the pit, I am making my company debut with Opera North, conducting The Magic Flute in March, Teatro Carlo Felice Genova with the Italian premiere of Sunset Boulevard in April, and Grange Park Opera with a new production of Hänsel und Gretel in June/July.

“On the concert platform, I am conducting four concerts with the LSO in the autumn, making a recording with Orchestre de Paris, conducting the Opéra Orchestre National in Montpellier for the first time, and conducting a programme of contemporary British music with the Ensemble Intercontemporain. I also continue this season as Daniel Harding’s assistant at Orchestre de Paris, which includes two Asian tours and a trip ‘home’ to the BBC Proms in the summer.”

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Tchaikovsky’s Bravura Concerto

18/11/2018

When Tchaikovsky completed the first draft of his piano concerto in 1875 he showed it three days later to the great Russian pianist, Nicolai Rubinstein, along with another musical friend, Nikolai Hubert. Tchaikovsky was rather hoping that Rubenstein would premiere the work at Moscow’s Russian Musical Society in Moscow.

Nicolai Rubenstein

However, they apparently viewed his work as ‘worthless and unplayable, with passages so fragmented, so clumsy, so badly written that they were beyond rescue.’ Rubenstein (pictured) decreed that the work itself was bad, vulgar; in places Tchaikovsky was accused of having stolen from other composers. Only two or three pages were declared worth of preserving, the rest should be thrown away or completely rewritten.

As one might expect, Tchaikovsky was astounded, outraged and upset by the incident. And when Rubenstein came to console him afterwards Tchaikovsky declared ‘I shall not alter a single note, I shall publish the work exactly as it is!’

And he did…!

Hans von Bülow

The premiere of the concerto actually took place later that year half a world away in Chicago, USA with Hans von Bülow (pictured) as the pianist describing it as ‘so original and noble’, and to whom Tchaikovsky was to subsequently dedicate the piece.

The audiences loved it too. However, the critics were not so impressed, one writing that the concerto was ‘hardly destined …to become classical’.

The unmistakable opening bars of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 makes it immediately recognisable as one of the best loved piano concertos of all time. However, it wasn’t always like that…

Concerto cover

But when the Moscow premiere finally took place, the conductor was none other than Nikolai Rubinstein. He had come to see the merits of the work and was to go on to play the solo part many times throughout Europe.

A year later Tchaikovsky did make some small amendments to the score. The most obvious was the alteration of the opening piano chords which were originally arpeggiated to the solid chords we are more familiar with today.

Click to listen to the original opening of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No1: https://vimeo.com/300252834

Tchaikovsky’s magnificent and much loved Concerto No.1 for Piano and Orchestra will be a highlight of Firebird in February when Firebird’s Artistic Director Marc Corbett-Weaver will be the piano soloist, pitted against the full weight of the symphony orchestra under the baton of George Jackson.

Firebird in February

Sunday 10 February 2019

St John-the-Evangelist, Oxford @ 6pm

Generously sponsored by the Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation

Mozart Overture to Die Zauberflöte K. 620

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in Bb minor, Op. 23

Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67

George Jackson conductor

Marc Corbett-Weaver piano

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What to expect from Firebird in February

20/10/2018

Firebird makes a welcome return to St John the Evangelist in Oxford with the generous support of the Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation following the orchestra’s hugely successful 2017 sell-out début. Let’s find out more…

Firebird’s programme promises some of the finest classical music in the repertoire. Opening with Mozart’s spellbindingly energetic overture to his comic opera, The Magic Flute, we will be immediately transported to a fairy-tale land of magical instruments, serpents and sorcerers in Mozart’s timeless classic.

From the Sydney opera House 2012 production of The Magic Flute

Next we dive headlong into Tchaikovsky’s magnificent and much loved Concerto No.1 for Piano and Orchestra. Firebird’s Artistic Director Marc Corbett-Weaver will be the piano soloist, pitted against the full weight of the symphony orchestra under the baton of George Jackson.

The work in the second half of the concert must be one of the best-known compositions in classical music. With its opening notes among the most recognisable in history, Beethoven’s mighty 5th Symphony has been described by ETA Hoffman as ‘one of the most important works of the time’.

The Beethoven Monument on the Münterplatz in Bonn

We may never be sure what Beethoven was trying to express with this piece – was it his belief in the belief in the French Revolution? Or was he railing against fate and his increasing deafness? Whatever this music is trying to say this is certainly turbulent music from a turbulent man living in a turbulent age, and will ensure that this will certainly be a Firebird night to remember.

Firebird in February

Sunday 10 February 2019
St John-the-Evangelist, Oxford @ 6pm

Generously sponsored by the Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation

Mozart Overture to Die Zauberflöte K. 620
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1in Bb minor, Op. 23
Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67

George Jackson conductor
Marc Corbett-Weaver piano

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It’s October, it’s time for Egmont!

06/10/2018

Beethoven’s majestic Egmont Overture opens Firebird’s 2018/19 Season in truly monumental form on 9 October at St George’s Hanover Square.

Our cover image is of Mount Egmont – also known as Mount Taranaki – in New Zealand and it sums up the epic spirit behind this opening concert to the season.

We start the programme with Beethoven’s great overture to Egmont, premiered in 1810 as the opening of a sequence of ten incidental pieces to Goethe’s play celebrating the life and heroism of 16th-century Count of Egmont.

Next is Bruch’s exquisite Violin Concerto No.1. Said to be the most beautiful of all violin concertos, it showcases the instrument with dazzling, virtuosic passages, passionate melodies and capturing the essence of pure romance.

And then two amazing pieces by a composer who achieved worldwide recognition for his music. Dvořák’s evocative Song to the Moon will be followed by his magnificent 8th Symphony. Inspired by the Bohemian folk music he so loved, the score was dedicated to no less than Emperor Franz Joseph.

And in addition to our magnificent symphony orchestra we present two formidable soloists with Belgian violinist Leonard Schreiber and soprano Verity Wingate, conducted by our very own George Jackson whose fame across Europe grows almost daily.

EGMONT IN OCTOBER

Beethoven Egmont Op. 84
Bruch Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor op.26
Dvorak Song to the Moon from Rusalka Op.114
Dvorak Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op.88, B.163

George Jackson conductor
Leonard Schreiber violin
Verity Wingate soprano

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