CONCERTS

HSO is delighted to present its Autumn concert in the beautiful surroundings of St Mary’s Church, Henley with a programme to match. Our guest conductor will be Margarita Mikhailova, Music Director of Cardiff University Symphony Orchestra, freelance conductor and a teacher at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Junior Department.

Since winning first prize and gold medal at the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition, local Henley saxophonist Huw Wiggin has performed all over the world, from the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, to those closer to home such as the Royal Festival Hall. Huw last performed with us at the Henley Festival in 2019. Huw is a member of the Ferio Saxophone Quartet and a professor at the Royal Academy of Music.

Originally included as the andante second movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, Blumine translates to ‘floral’, or ‘flower’, and some believe this deeply sentimental little gem was written for Johanna Richter, with whom he was infatuated at the time. After harsh criticism Mahler removed the movement, and the score was lost for years. After its re-discovery, Benjamin Britten gave the first performance of the original version in 1967.

Eric Coates was a master of refined and beautiful melodies, making him a household name during the golden years of British light music in the first half of the 20th century. The virtuoso Saxo-Rhapsody is one of the era’s major saxophone works.

The fourth movement of Mahler’s hugely scaled Symphony No. 5, marked adagietto, is probably performed as a stand-alone work more often than any other single symphonic movement. It is justly famous as being one of the most moving pieces in the classical repertoire when time seems to stop still.

The Oboe Concerto in C minor by Marcello was written in 1717 and now transcribed for the soprano saxophone. The haunting second movement is particularly beautiful.

Our concert concludes with Antonín Dvořák’s joyful Symphony No 8. Orchestras from all over the world commissioned symphonies from the pre-eminent Czech composer but for No 8, one of the most popular, there was no such commission. Written simply for his own pleasure, the music ‘singsof the joy of green pastures’.