大象传媒

Tom McKinney presents a week with the Ulster Orchestra.

The week begins with a concert given at the end of January in Belfast's Ulster Hall in which Gemma New conducts a programme packed full of melodic sparkle and loaded with enough rhythm to help you dance your way through the end of the winter months! Stravinsky鈥檚 Danses concertantes was composed as a concert piece, but with the input of a choreographer 鈥� just listen and imagine the poses and gestures of a corps de ballet. Jacques Ibert鈥檚 Concerto for Flute is one of the repertoire鈥檚 great showpieces for the instrument, and Adam Walker (Principal Flautist of the London Symphony Orchestra) is the perfect agile and elegant soloist.
Taking its heritage from both medieval music and the tradition of 20th-century work such as Barber鈥檚 Adagio for Strings, Aaron Jay Kernis鈥檚 Musica Celestis is shimmering, hymn-like and utterly tranquil. And they close with Mendelssohn鈥檚 Italian Symphony - a musical postcard from the happy, buoyant composer as he travelled in the Mediterranean. It's imbued with the sunshine of Italy and draws on traditional Italian dances such as the saltarello and tarantella for its fizzing finale.

The penultimate piece in today's programme is Richard Strauss' 1896 tone poem "Also Sprach Zarathustra". Inspired by Nietzsche鈥檚 philosophical novel of the same name, Strauss explores the development of humankind, from the Birth of Reason in the famous opening Sunrise through to the piece鈥檚 enigmatic end 鈥� the question of the balance between humanity and the universe is explored, but not resolved.

The orchestra closes with Leopold Stokowski's vibrant orchestration of one of JS Bach's most well-known organ pieces - the Passacaglia & Fugue in C minor. They're joined by the Charles Wood Singers under the baton of David Hill.

2.00pm
Stravinsky: Danses Concertantes
Ibert: Flute Concerto
Kernis: Musica Celestis
Mendelssohn: Symphony No.4 鈥淚talian鈥�
Ulster Orchestra
Adam Walker (flute)
Gemma New (conductor)

3.30pm
Richard Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra
Ulster Orchestra
Rafael Payare, conductor

4.10pm
Bach. orch. Stokowski: Passacaglia & Fugue in C minor, BWV.582
Ulster Orchestra
Charles Wood Singers
David Hill, conductor