Suite

Concert

LUCA Strings

Lei Wang, conductor

Gustav Holst (1874-1934) wrote most of his oeuvre in the isolated music room of St Paul's Girls School in Hammersmith, where he was appointed artistic director in 1904. His St. Paul's Suite, as the name suggests, refers to the educational institution and was also the school orchestra's first composition. Although he first conceived the work for string ensemble, he later added wind parts himself so that the work could serve the full orchestra of the school. Four movements follow one another: "Jig" is lively, especially through the alternation of the 6/8 and 9/8 time signatures, the "Ostinato" falls back on a four-note motif, the "Intermezzo" can be interpreted as an energetic, rhythmic dance, and the "Finale" falls back on two traditional folk melodies, the dance-like "Dargason" and the widely known "Greensleeves”.

"Playful Pizzicato" by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) is one of the four movements of Simple Symphony. Although the name suggests a symphony, this work is more like a suite. Britten reworked some of his youthful works and compiled them into this four-movement suite, of which "Playful Pizzicato" is undoubtedly one of the best known. In pure pizzicato, the groups of instruments alternate, dialogue with each other and reinforce each other in one big rousing and joyous event. Britten dedicated the work to the viola teacher of his childhood.

The Russian Rodion Shchedrin (b. 1932) was born just after the Russian Revolution and experienced Stalin's dictatorial policies up close. His compositions consist mainly of ballets and operas. The Carmen Suite 1967, based on George Bizet's opera Carmen , is a one-act ballet. Shchedrin arranged the opera for strings and percussion and integrated surprising harmonies and unexpected rhythms. The Soviet regime considered this adaptation too free and did not tolerate it. Nevertheless, it later became immensely popular and subsequently became one of Shchedrin's most famous works.

Programme