Britten: Variation and Fugue on a theme by Purcell (“Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra”), op. 34 Knussen: Violin Concerto, op. 30 – Hungarian premiere Knussen: The Way to Castle Yonder – pot-pourri for orchestra, op. 21a – Hungarian premiere Britten: Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from the opera Peter Grimes Featuring: Clio Gould Conductor: Oliver Knussen English composer and conductor Oliver Knussen is a highly influential figure in international music. He began life as a child prodigy: at the age of sixteen, when his works were already being performed all over the world, he stepped in overnight to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra. Between 1992 and 1998 he was first guest conductor of the Residentie Orchestra of the Hague and enjoys a close relationship with the London Sinfonietta who appointed him its honorary music director. The soloist this evening is Clio Gould, concertmaster of the London Sinfonietta and artistic director of the Scottish Ensemble, who plays a “Rutson” Stradivarius. Since her debut, she has been a regular guest at the London Proms Festival. Benjamin Britten originally composed his Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra for a documentary film. The instruments and instrumental groups demonstrate their own personalities one after the other according to their own character, by playing the same Purcell theme. Britten composed his opera Peter Grimes during World War II. He composed six orchestral interludes, spaced throughout the opera, and four of these – Dawn, Storm, Sunday Morning, Moonlight – have earned themselves a permanent place in the symphonic orchestral repertoire. Knussen wrote his three movement Violin Concerto, which emulates the Baroque tradition of concerto works, to a joint commission by the Pittsburg Symphony Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The Way to Castle Yonder was originally a one act fairy tale opera: it tells the tale of Jennie the terrier who inhabits a land of singing dogs. Knussen later extracted enough material from his opera to construct a ten minute “mini symphony” comprising of three orchestral episodes, which we shall hear tonight.

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