THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ALDERLEY EDGE ORCHESTRA ISSUE 15 MARCH 2014www. ae . aeo rches t r a .o rg .uk

DVORAKConcert Overture:In Nature’s Realm

Op 91

ELGARCello Concerto in E minor,

Op 85Soloist: Lucy Arch

BORODINSymphony No 2 in B minor

Venue: Alderley Edge Methodist Churchat 7.30 pm

WORKSHOP

MAHLERSymphony No 5

Conductor: Timothy Kendal

Venue: Honford Hall, Handforth9.30 am to 5.00 pm

Saturday, 22nd November 2014 Saturday, 24th January 2015 Saturday, 7th March 2015

BEETHOVENOverture: Leonora No 3

R STRAUSSHorn Concerto No 1

in E flatSoloist: Angela Barnes

R STRAUSSSerenade for Wind, Op 7

HAYDNSymphony No 100in G

'Military'Venue: Alderley Edge Methodist Church

at 7.30 pm

Saturday, 16th May 2015

WEBEROverture: Der Freischutz

MENDELSSOHNPiano Concerto No 1 in G minorSoloist: Natalia Strelchenko

SIBELIUSSuite: Karelia

MOZARTSymphony No 35 in D

'Haffner'Venue: Alderley Edge Methodist Church

at 7.30 pm

which were consideredcarefully by theCommittee before thefinal programme wasassembled.Once again, we have

been able to line up anoutstanding group ofsoloists for next season.

LUCY ARCH

LUCY ARCH will beplaying the Elgar

Cello Concerto in ourconcert on 22ndNovember.Lucy Arch started

playing the cello at theage of 7 and currentlystudies at the RoyalNorthern College of

Music with Christopher Hoyle andHannah Roberts.She played for several years in

the National Youth Orchestra ofGreat Britain, performing at majorvenues all over the UK undereminent conductors.Lucy has a keen interest in

chamber music, twice winning the

SIMON CONNINGwill be making histhird visit on 17th

May 2014 to join us for aperformance ofBeethoven’s SecondPiano Concerto.Simon has been busy

over the past year. Henow has a recording dealwith Meridian Records inLondon, for whom he hasrecorded Muzio Clementipiano sonatas as his firstrelease.He commenced his

studies with Marjorie Kellyin Macclesfield, thencontinued at the RoyalCollege of Music’s JuniorDepartment with MarjorieClementi. He later studied at theRoyal College of Music in Londonwith Yu Chun Yee.Simon’s involvement in Musical

Theatre as keyboardist andMusical Director has seen himcollaborate with many establishedartists on diverse productions inEurope and throughout the UK

but mostly in London’s West End.

Our 2014-15 Season

FULL details of ourforthcoming season are given

below.As always, we should like to

thank players for the wide-ranginglist of suggested works, all of

Orchestral notes

Welcome back to pianist Simon Conning

Supported by

ALDERLEY EDGEINST I TUTE TRUST

ensemble prize at Junior RNCM,and performing the SchumannPiano Quartet at the WigmoreHall. This year her string quartet,The Clara String Quartet, havewon the Hirsch Prize for the bestperformance of a BeethovenQuartet and have just returnedfrom a course in Germany wherethey represented the RNCM .Solo performances have includedthe Schumann concerto at theRNCM, and several recitals. Lucyis an experienced orchestralplayer, leading a wide range ofthe classical, romantic and 20thcentury repertoire with RNCMchamber, symphony and classicalorchestras, as well as manyothers. This year she hasundertaken work with the Royal

Liverpool PhilharmonicOrchestra.

ANGELA BARNES

ANGELA BARNES willobe omaking a

welcome return visit on 7thMarch 2015 as soloist inRichard Strauss’s First HornConcerto.

It is now some 15 yearssince Angela – then atChetham’s School of Musicin Manchester – played aMozart horn concerto withthe orchestra.In January 2005, at the

age of 21, Angela was appointedsecond horn of the LondonSymphony Orchestra, becomingthe first female member of theorchestra’s brass section in theorchestra’s hundred-year history.She has worked regularly with

most of the major Britishorchestras, appearing as a guestprincipal with the LondonPhilharmonic Orchestra, the RoyalPhilharmonic Orchestra, the Cityof Birmingham SymphonyOrchestra, and the RoyalLiverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.Angela’s career combines

orchestral, solo and chambermusic playing. As well asfeaturing in the second instalmentof the Cala Records ‘‘LondonHorn Sound’’ series, she has also

recently recorded Britten’sCanticle for Tenor, Horn andPiano, with tenor Allan Clayton, aspart of the BBC Radio 3 NewGeneration Artists scheme.Angela, from Rossendale,

Lancashire, began horn lessonswith her mother at the age ofeight, before entering Chetham’sSchool of Music, Manchester, in1994 to study with ElizabethDavis.She then went on to study with

Hugh Seenan, Richard Bissill,

How much do YOU know about Alexander Borodin?

PROBABLY the answer is “not very much”, apart perhaps fromthe fact that he was a Russian chemist who only composed

music in his spare time. But did you know that he was theillegitimate son of a Russian prince? That his research work onpolymers was some of the finest undertaken in the 19th century?That he reserved his finest music for his pianist wife EkaterinaProtopopova to whom he had a long and happy marriage? That helived life to the full but died at a masked ball at the early age ofonly 53? And musically, did you know that the his SecondSymphony – which we’ll be playing in our concert on 22ndNovember – is unique in starting with a pause on its very first note;and its third movement is the only piece of 19th century classicalmusic scored with a time signature of 1/1?You can learn more about Borodin and his Second Symphony in a fascinating‘Discovering Music’ presentation by Stephen Johnson with the BBCPhilharmonic Orchestra on www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00glzhv.

Lucy Arch

Angela Barnes

OUR NEXT WORKSHOP

WE received many usefulsuggestions for the 2015

workshop.Eventually, and after further

consultation, the choice wasMahler’s Fifth Symphony and weare sure it will prove a fascinatingand worthwhile challenge for allsections of the orchestra.Composed in 1901/2, it’s a

massive work, over an hour inlength. It’s scored for four flutes,three oboes , three clarinets,three bassoons, six horns, threetrombones, tuba, percussion andstrings.The fourth movement is

arguably Mahler's most famoussingle piece of music, and is themost frequently performedextract from Mahler’s works. It isperhaps best known for its use inthe 1971 Luchino Visconti filmDeath in Venice.

The Children’s Society

WE have been approachedby The Children’s Society

who have asked if we could helpthem with their fundraising.The Children’s Society is a long-

established charity (set up in 1881)which runs over 36 children’scentre around the country andworks in association with 40 localauthorities to help children of allfaiths and none, including childrenat risk on the streets, disabledchildren, young refugees, youngcarers or those within the youthjustice system.We have agreed to help them

to promote this good cause at ourNovember concert, when they willhave a display stand in the foyerand accept donations fromconcert-goers.

Jeffrey Bryant and JonathanLipton at the Guildhall School ofMusic and Drama in London, fromwhere she graduated with a FirstClass Honours degree in July2005.Angela has given numerous

solo and chamber musicperformances, and was a memberof both the National YouthOrchestra and the EuropeanUnion Youth Orchestra.In 2002, she won both the

Liverpool Young Musiciancompetition and the Brass sectionof the BBC Young Musician of theYear competition, which saw herperform Richard Strauss’ SecondHorn Concerto with the BBCSymphony Orchestra in theBarbican Hall, London, as part ofthe Concerto Final, which wasbroadcast live on BBC televisionand radio.Highlights of recent seasons

include performances ofSchumann’s Konzertstuck for FourHorns and orchestra with the BBCPhilharmonic in Manchester’sBridgewater Hall (broadcast onBBC Radio 3), and of Brahms’Horn Trio with pianist MartinRoscoe and violinist NicholasWright as part of the RibbleValley International Piano Week.

She was also honouredto perform in Memphis,Tennessee during thesummer of 2013 as aFeatured Soloist at the45th annual symposium ofthe International HornSociety.

NATALIASTRELCHENKO

THOSE of youattended the

‘Planets’ workshop inJanuary will rememberthe virtuosity of pianistNatalia who filled ininnumerable parts on thekeyboard.We now welcome her

back in a more conventional role:to play Mendelssohn’s First PianoConcerto in our concert on 16thMay 2015.Natalia Strelchenko is a

Norwegian pianist of Russianorigin and considered to be oneof the country’s most renownedsolo pianists of internationalcalibre. She made her debut atage 12 with the St. PetersburgSymphony OrchestraNatalia graduated from Saint

Petersburg State Conservatoireand Norwegian Academy ofMusic.She has given many

international solo recitalsincluding performances of TwelveTranscendental Etudes by FranzLiszt at New York’s Carnegie Hall(2008) and solo recitals atLondon’s Wigmore Hall. HerLondon recitals elicited a rarefive-star review from TheIndependent.Natalia is also a musicological

researcher in the area of historicalpiano techniques and has beenawarded a research degree fromNorway’s leading music academy.Public exposure includes

eleven CDs, essays and articles,and ongoing TV and Radiobroadcasts in around the world.

Natalia Strelchenko

The Alderley Edge Festival

THE Alderley Edge Festival isone of the longest

established and most successfulfestivals of its kind in the country.Our own orchestra has historic

links with the Festival which dateback to 1922 when, according toThe Alderley Edge Advertiser “ameeting of the Alderley EdgeMusical Festival committee hastaken place to discuss theformation of an Orchestra. Itreported that Mr WO West(organist of St Philip’s Church,Alderley Edge) has consented toconduct. Weekly rehearsals willbegin in the autumn.”We have recently held meetings

with the Alderley Edge Festival tore-affirm our links to the benefit ofboth organisations. We willadvertise each other’s activities inour programmes and Festivalbrochures (see below), and alsohave links beetween ourrespective websites.We shall be exploring other

ways of working together in themonths ahead.

Whatever recommendationsyour committee decides to make,it is important that they have thefull support of the orchestra. Wetherefore propose to convene anExtraordinary General Meeting atthe start of the rehearsal onThursday, 22nd May 2014 whenwe will be able to discuss ourproposals in some detail.This is an important time of

change for the orchestra and wehope that members will makeevery effort to attend the EGM.

�� The 2014 Alderley Edge Festival will

be held from Tuesday, 6th May to

Saturday, 10th May 2014. For full details

see www.alderleyedgefestival.com.

Conductors in 2014/15

MEMBERS of the orchestrawill be aware from earlier

discussions of Tim Kendal’s wishto step down his conductingcommitments after 30 years onthe rostrum.We therefore invited our

President Richard Howarth toconduct the March 2014 concert –the first professional conductor inthe orchestra’s long history.Thanks also to a wonderful

performance of Vaughan Williams’Lark Ascending, the concert wasan outstanding success with avirtually capacity audience.Your committee will be meeting

on 19th May to discuss conductingarrangements for the 2014-15season. In terms of the further useof professional conductors, ourplans will of course hinge cruciallyon the financial performance ofthe orchestra over the 2013-14season.

Richard Howarth

The Alderley Edge Festival has been running for over 100 years. This year between 6th and 11th May we will be host to over 2600 young performers. We are proud to support Richard Howarth in making his first public performance as conductor of The Alderley Edge Orchestra .

2014 Alderley Edge Festival We look forward to welcoming you to this prestigious annual event. If you would like to volunteer to help during 6th 11th May 2014 , please e-mail chairman@alderleyedgefestival.com

Affiliated to The British and International Federation of Festivals