Programme

Fri 29 Aug 03 7:30pm - From the New World
Sun 12 Oct 03 7:30pm - Classics for Pleasure
Sun 2 Nov 03 7:30pm - Bags of Beethoven
Sun 30 Nov 03 7:30pm - Classical Brilliance
Thurs 29 Jan 04 7:30pm - Shostakovich meets Schumann
Sun 25 Apr 04 3:00pm - Football and the Wolf
Sat 8 May 04 7:30pm - Best of Youthful Britain
Thus 24 Jun 04 7:30pm - Midsummer Magic

From the New World

Gershwin - Piano Concerto in F major
Dvorák - Symphony no. 9 in E minor ‘From the New World’
Barber - Candide: Overture
Bernstein - Knoxville: Summer of 1915

When Czech composer Antonin Dvorák worked in New York, he found the music of native Americans fascinating. In tribute he wrote his most famous work: the New World symphony. In this concert we have a chance to contrast his view of 19th century America with vibrant American music from the mid-20th century. Delicious pieces by three of the finest composers to grow up in the jazz influenced era, Bernstein, Gershwin and Barber, with soloists Joanna MacGregor and Cheryl Hawkins, make this a concert not to be missed. Siân Edwards conducts.

Classics for Pleasure

Sunday 12th October 2003
Mozart - Concerto for Flute and Harp in C major
Prokofiev - Symphony no. 1 ‘Classical’
Dove - The Magic Flute Dances
Mozart - Eine kleine Nachtmusik

Hilary Davan Wetton - Conductor
Soloists
Emily Beynon - Flute
Catherine Beynon - Harp

This concert features two outstanding works by the greatest of all Austrian composers, Mozart, including a rarely performed masterpiece, the Concerto for flute and harp, with sisters Emily and Catherine Beynon. Two composers who have shown an admiration for the writings of Mozart are Jonathan Dove and Prokofiev. This concert gives a chance to hear Prokofiev’s enchanting Classical symphony and a second chance to hear Dove’s acclaimed The Magic Flute Dances, jointly commissioned by MKCO and YCAT.

Bags of Beethoven

Beethoven - Piano concerto no. 3 in C minor
                - Piano concerto no. 1 in C major
                - Prometheus Overture & Ballet music
                - Overture Coriolan

Hilary Davan Wetton – Conductor
Peter Donohoe - Piano

Peter Donohoe

Did you know that Beethoven wrote music for a ballet? Only the Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus is generally performed these days but MKCO offers an opportunity to hear the incidental music, a wonderful rarity. Local favourite Peter Donohoe joins the orchestra in two contrasting piano concertos by Beethoven – the carefree first and the profound third.

Classical Brilliance

Haydn - Concerto for Trumpet in E flat major
Mozart - Symphony no. 41 in C major ‘Jupiter’
Boyce - Symphony no. 4 in F major

Hilary Davan Wetton – Conductor
Tim Hawes - Trumpet

This concert features two masterpieces from the end of the 18th century by close friends from Vienna, Mozart and Haydn. Tim Hawes the MKCO’s principal trumpet, is soloist in Haydn’s evergreen trumpet concerto while Hilary Davan Wetton conducts the orchestra in the most monumental of all Mozart’s symphonies, the Jupiter. An English rarity starts the programme – Boyce’s symphonies are delicious explorations into the grandest of all traditions and are highly regarded by aficionados.

Shostakovich meets Schumann

Schumann: Cello concerto in A minor
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1
Schumann: Overture: Manfred

Siân Edwards is rightly regarded as one of the finest of British interpreters of Russian music and, in response to audience demand, she conducts the most approachable of Shostakovich’s symphonies, the first. It is full of wonderful tunes and orchestral brilliance but has none of the agonies of political doubt which assailed his later works. The popular leader of the orchestra’s cello section, Gerard Le Feuvre, makes his solo debut with the orchestra in Schumann’s tuneful concerto, re-orchestrated by Shostakovich. Schumann’s own version of his Manfred overture starts the concert.

Football and the Wolf - Family concert

Prokofiev makes a second appearance in this season with his wonderful evocation of youthful high spirits in Peter and the Wolf. This short story of how a young boy manages to outwit a marauding wolf, with the help of a bird, a cat and a duck, is a delightful introduction to orchestral music for ‘children of all ages.’
MKCO brings back to Milton Keynes David Lyon’s fascinating Game in which the audience is divided into supporters of the home team and the away team in a football match – and the result isn’t known in advance. Bring scarves, hats and football shirts for your favourite team – and be ready to cheer (and boo!) as goals are scored.

Best of youthful Britain

Britten - Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra
Vaughan-Williams - The Lark Ascending
MacMillan - Into the Ferment
Butterworth - A Shropshire Lad
Elgar - Enigma Variations

With students from the Milton Keynes Music Service
Hilary Davan Wetton – conductor
Diana Cummings – violin

Following a successful collaboration in 2001, members of the Milton Keynes Music Service join the orchestra in another collaboration, this time by Scottish composer James MacMillan’s Into the Ferment is a typically approachable work by this fantastically talented writer. An earlier work designed with youngsters in mind is Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, perhaps the finest such work ever written. At the centre of this tribute to British composers is the most popular concert work ever penned in these islands, Elgar’s portrait of his ‘friends within’, the Enigma Variations.

Midsummer Magic

Tchaikovsky: Piano concerto no. 1 in B flat minor
Dvorák: Symphony no. 7 in D minor
Kodály: Dances of Galánta

Hilary Davan Wetton – Conductor
Bobby Chen - Piano

For the season of midsummer, MKCO has devised a programme of mouth-watering music. Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto is in everybody’s ‘Hundred Best Tunes’ and comes between two more masterpieces from Eastern Europe. Kodály’s Dances from Galánta is one of those irritating pieces where you recognise the tunes but can never put a name to it…well now’s the chance to change that. Dvorák’s Seventh Symphony is possibly his greatest work; it is full of Bohemian charm and passion.

Concert Programme