Concert: Beethoven, Prokofiev

Event information

Conductor: William Carslake

Soloist: So Ock Kim (Violin)

Guest Choir: Fleet Choral Society (Musical Director – Nick Cartledge)

Beethoven: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage
Choral Work TBD
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

For our final concert of the 2024/25 season we are supremely excited to be working with Fleet Choral Society under the musical direction of Nick Cartledge. The Society, which numbers about 100 members, performs a wide variety of religious and secular works and includes Sir John Rutter and Bob Chilcott amongst its patrons. The choir joins the FSO in the opening work of the concert: Beethoven’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, a cantata for chorus and orchestra. Based on two poems by Goethe, the work was first performed in Vienna on Christmas Day 1815. The two movements depict a sailing ship becalmed and, as the wind rises, the resumption of its voyage.

It is with great delight that we also welcome back So-Ock Kim who has performed regularly with the FSO since 2016. Her consummate virtuosity never fails to enthrall audiences and we look forward with great anticipation to her rendering of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2. The work was written for Robert Soetens and premiered in 1935. Reflecting on the composition of the work during a concert tour with Soetens, Prokofiev wrote, “the number of places in which I wrote the Concerto shows the kind of nomadic concert-tour life I led then. The main theme of the 1st movement was written in Paris, the first theme of the 2nd movement at Voronezh [SW Russia], the orchestration was finished in Baku [Azerbaijan] and the premiere was given in Madrid.”

The FSO’s season concludes with Beethoven’s epic Symphony No. 9., which needs no introduction. The Choral Symphony is one of the most performed symphonies in the world and is regarded by many critics and musicologists as a masterpiece of Western classical music and one of the supreme achievements in the history of music. The work was premiered in Vienna in May 1824 and Beethoven received glowing acclamation in the form of five standing ovations. According to Harvey Sachs “there were handkerchiefs in the air, hats, and raised hands, so that Beethoven, who they knew could not hear the applause, could at least see the ovations.” Whilst the response of our audience may not be quite as fulsome as in Beethoven’s day, we hope you will enjoy sharing with us these exultant closing moments of our season.