Winter Concert

Exeter Symphony Orchestra

Exeter Symphony Orchestra – with emerging, already internationally-acclaimed soloist, Kristiana Ignatjeva – is delighted to present a concert comprising Bax, Shostakovich and Elgar in Southernhay United Reformed Church, Exeter, on Saturday 30 November 2019 at 7:30pm. We will also bid farewell to conductor Brian Northcott after 15 illustrious years directing the orchestra.

Arnold Bax wrote his Symphony No 4 in 1930 and drew inspiration from his great love of the sea to produce a work which is arguably the most optimistic of seven symphonies. Scored for large orchestra, the symphony opens in blustery, yet triumphant mood, evokes a quiet, dreamy day afloat in the second movement, then concludes happily and unusually storm-free. Its shades of Richard Strauss and Mahler render it an intriguing piece.

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Festive Overture is a vivacious, brilliant firework, yet its stated solemn intent was to mark the 37th anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia. The now resoundingly popular number was premiered in Moscow in 1954, but Shostakovich may have dusted off a 1947 commission from ‘his bottom drawer’ once the post-Stalin era cultural thaw was under way. Whatever the Soviet politics, the overture’s undoubted energy and enduring appeal surely account for its prominent use during the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics, the 2009 Nobel Prize Concert, and, of course, in our programme.

The young Latvian cellist Kristiana Ignatjeva is already no stranger to concert platforms across Europe and North America, so it is with great excitement and immense pride that we welcome her to Exeter to perform the Elgar concerto. The idea for this masterwork came to the composer as he awoke from anaesthesia after his tonsillectomy in 1919 whereupon he asked for pen and paper to write the first theme. The piece then quickly recovered from an inadequately rehearsed premiere and is now one of the most loved cello concertos of all time.