Brent Symphony Orchestra Autumn Concert

Brent Symphony Orchestra

As a tribute to Chonon Lewis, a very popular and much-missed member of the BSO violin section who passed away last year, the orchestra will be performing his Overture in Classical Style. One of several works he composed especially for us, it is a lively piece with strong echoes of Haydn, Mozart and Rossini.

Louise Farrenc's music is beginning to be performed again after many decades of neglect. As a composer, she has been compared by some good judges as the equal of Schubert and Mendelssohn, but she was also a concert pianist and for thirty years a professor at the Paris Conservatoire - the only woman to hold that position in the entire nineteenth century.  The BSO will be playing her Overture no.2, written in 1835.

Max Bruch's romantic Violin Concerto no. 1 is deservedly one of the most popular in the repertoire. The soloist will be Charlie Brookes, leader of the BSO.

While music at the beginning of the twentieth century was generally getting longer and more complex, Sibelius in his Symphony no. 3 offered brevity and pared-down textures - but with a strikingly triumphant ending. Not romantic like his first two symphonies, nor austere like the remaining four, this symphony occupies a unique place in the repertoire.