Andrew Manze                 conductor
Guy Johnston                   cello*
Cantamus Girls Choir

Walton                          Spitfire Music and Battle in the Air from Battle of Britain
Bliss                              Cello Concerto
Holst                             The Planets

This colourful all-English programme takes off with William Walton’s music for the climactic aerial duel of Guy Hamilton’s classic 1969 movie. Walton was originally booked to compose the entire film score before MGM’s studio executives abruptly side-lined him in favour of Ron Goodwin. Walton’s battle scene was the only section that remained of his music but it’s also the film’s most memorable moment, capturing the altitudinous, rapid-firing action with breathless energy. Walton’s near contemporary, Sir Arthur Bliss, wrote his Cello Concerto for the great Russian virtuoso Mstislav Rostropovich, who gave its premiere at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1970. One of Bliss’s last major works, it’s an appealing mix of lyricism and the composer’s trademark rhythmic drive. Our soloist is Guy Johnston, a former BBC Young Musician winner and now one of the world’s leading cellists.*

Written between 1914 and 1917, Gustav Holst’s The Planets begins with a hair-raising evocation of mechanistic conflict in the fire and ferocity of Mars, the Bringer of War. Holst’s main inspiration, though, for his ever-popular Symphonic Suite was his interest in astrology which vividly colours each planet, from the buoyant spirits of Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, to the ethereal chill of Neptune, the Mystic. Over a century after its first performance, it remains one of the most brilliantly original works for orchestra, making spectacular use of its huge orchestral forces.

Free pre-concert talk, 6.20pm in the auditorium: Andrew Burn, the Bliss Trust, in conversation.

* Our original soloist, Mark Bebbington, has unfortunately had to withdraw from performing Bliss’s Piano Concerto due to a hand injury. We are grateful to Guy Johnston for agreeing to perform in his place and enabling us to include Sir Arthur Bliss’s music in the concert.