Brighouse & Rastrick Band
10-Oct-2002Gracie Fields Theatre, Rochdale
Saturday 5th October 2002
Brighouse and Rastrick planned programme choice for this concert that was in the main a quite a classical affair with strong links in the second half to The Last Night of the Proms. The first concerts under title `Promenade Concerts à la Musard' (Musard was the leader) were held in London 1838 however the ones we associate with today began in 1895 when Robert Newman began new series at Queen's Hall, London which were conducted by Henry Wood.
The concert opened with "Festmusik der Stadt Wien" (Festival music for the City of Vienna) by Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949). In his late 70s and 80s, after relying quite heavily on past fame and successes Strauss's creative spirit returned. He wrote the "Festmusik der Stadt Wien" while he was living in Vienna for the city's brass ensemble made up of players from the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony and the orchestra of the Vienna Folk Opera. It has been variously known also as Festmusik or Festfanfare "for Vienna city trumpeters" written for brass and timpani in 1943, but was not published until after his death.
Opus 96: Festive Overture A major for orchestra (1954) also known as The Festival Overture is quite a showpiece for band in an arrangement by. Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 –1975) composed this music for the 37th anniversary of the October Revolution and it was first performed in Moscow Bolshoi Theatre on the 6th November 1954 by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra under the direction of A. Melik-Pashaev.
The four solo items performed featured their principals Nicholas Payne (cornet) Melvyn Bathgate (horn), Steven Miles (euphonium) and David Hebb (tuba).
During Whit Week 1950, the BBC's Midlands Home Service broadcast five pilot episodes "The Archers" The producer Godfrey Baseley having previously worked mainly on agricultural programmes hoped that they would appeal to farmers. The concert featured the ‘dum-di-dum-di-dum' tune which intorduces the programme. It is a ‘maypole dance' called ‘Barwick Green' from the suite "My Native Heath" which was written in 1924 by a Yorkshire composer, Arthur Wood.
‘Erin Shore' was included to get the audience tapping their feet before returning to the classics to play the ‘Finale from Symphony No 4' by Tchaikovsky. The fourth of Tchaikovsky's six symphonies was finished in January 1878 and was premiered six weeks later. The symphony was completed after he had left his wife and after attempting to commit suicide. The fourth symphony echoes some of the emotions he was experiencing at this time in his life and finale is thought to propose an answer to his depression in the company of others.
Johann Strauss the Elder (1804-1849) was born in a tavern in a shoddy part of Vienna in 1804. His father was an innkeeper and Johann's musicianship was primarily self-taught. He paid two highly successful visits to Great Britain. He died in Vienna on 25th September 1849 from the effects of scarlet fever, contracted from one of his seven illegitimate children. Although he composed hundreds of works the concert featured the work he is best known for, the omnipresent ‘Radetzky-Marsch' (1848) which honours the eponymous 82-year-old Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Austrian army Chancellor Metternich.
Based on the total number of weeks in the charts Elvis Presley (1935-1977), who had 17 number one hits, ranks as the biggest selling solo artist of the 20th Century. The ‘King of Rock and Roll' is estimated to have sold over one billion records and a few featured in an ‘Elvis' medley.
"And Did Those Feet In Ancient Time" – words by William Blake circa 1804 (although some sources attribute the first two lines to John Milton) were set to music "Jerusalem," by Charles H.H. Parry in 1916. Edward Elgar added an orchestral score to Parry's rather somber tune for the Leeds Festival of 1922 and turned it into the popular national hymn that was played by the band. The words may refer to folklore that says Jesus visited Britain with Joseph of Arimathea, a distant relative who had a stake in Cornish tin mines. There is however no historical data supporting this story.
Born in Dunottar, Scotland in 1836, Jessie Seymour Irvine, was the daughter of the parish minister. She accompanied her father in succeeding appointments at Peterhead and Crimond, where she died in 1887.
The hymn now called ‘Crimond', played in an arrangement by Peter Graham, first appeared in the Northern Psalter in 1872. It was credited to David Grant, an Aberdeen businessman and amateur musician, however, in 1911 Jessie's sister Anna Irvine claimed that her sister had composed the tune and sent it to Grant to be harmonized. There is little conclusive evidence on either side but in 1929 the Scottish Psalter credited the tune to Jessie Irvine.
The concert concluded with ‘Pomp and Circumstance No 1' Five military marches were composed by Elgar –1 to 4 were composed between 1901-7, and No. 5 in 1930. Their title is a quotation from Shakespeare's Othello and Elgar adopted part of no. 1 in his Coronation Ode (1902) with the famous words 'Land of Hope and Glory'.
Ian J Dust
