FARNBOROUGH: St. Peter's Church

Saturday 20th January, 2024

7:15pm

Event information

Guest Conductor: Daniel Hogan
Soloist: John Myerscough (Cello)

Weber: Oberon Overture
Schumann: Cello Concerto
Dvořák: Symphony No. 7

The FSO welcomes in the New Year with a concert of works by well-known composers from the Romantic school. To preside over the orchestra, we are delighted to welcome back Daniel Hogan, who proved immensely popular last season with both musicians and audience alike with his sensitive interpretation of works by Korngold and Franck. This year, the January concert opens with the overture from Weber’s final opera, Oberon, which was premiered in April 1826 at Covent Garden just weeks before the composer’s death. Described as “one of the most remarkable combinations of fantasy and technical skill in modern music”, the opera exemplified Weber’s use of the romantic orchestra which was later to influence other major composers, particularly Berlioz.

The cello concerto by Robert Schumann was written during a two week period in October 1850 and was never performed in the composer’s lifetime. The concerto is considered one of Schumann’s more enigmatic works, largely due to its structure, the length of the exposition, and “the transcendental quality of the opening and the intense lyricism of the second movement”. To bring this exciting work to life, the FSO is delighted to welcome back John Myerscough, who first performed as a soloist with the orchestra in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in 2019. He is Professor of cello and chamber music at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and is the cellist of the Doric Quartet, with whom he has performed extensively at venues across the world.

The concert closes with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7. The work was composed in 1885 and performed for the first time in London a few weeks after its completion. Originally published as Symphony No. 2, it is highly regarded by critics and musicologists; Sir Donald Tovey asserted that “along with the four Brahms symphonies and Schubert’s Ninth, it is among the greatest and purest examples in this art-form since Beethoven”. We look forward with great anticipation to performing all three of these romantic gems and hope that you will join us for an evening which promises to transport us across the full span of the nineteenth century.