Summer Concert 20 June 2027
Under the inspiring leadership of Maestro Joe Davies, the orchestra is excited to present a truly memorable programme for the younger audience, on the theme of Fire!
We will be delighted to welcome Reuben Moisey the outstanding Finalist in our WMSO 2025 Young Musician Concerto Competition when he played the first movement of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto.
Theme: FIRE
HANDEL: Music for the Royal Fireworks
The Music for the Royal Fireworks is a suite in D major for wind instruments composed in 1749 for George II for the fireworks in London's Green Park on 27 April 1749. The music celebrates the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in 1748. The work was very popular when first performed and has continued to be performed around the world.
FALLA: Ritual Fire Dance
Ritual Fire Dance (Spanish: Danza ritual del fuego) is a movement of the ballet El amor brujo (The Bewitched Love), written by the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla in 1915. It was made popular by the composer's own piano arrangement.
The piece was influenced by the traditional, religious ceremony of a fire dance, a dance that was used to worship the fire-god and in which people would often jump through, or leap around the fire.
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No.1 soloist: Reuben Moisey
The Piano Concerto No. 1 in B♭ minor, Op. 23, was composed between November 1874 and February 1875. It was revised in 1879 and again in 1888. It was first performed on October 25, 1875, in Boston by Hans von Bülow after Tchaikovsky's desired pianist, Nikolai Rubinstein, criticised the piece. Rubinstein later withdrew his criticism and became a fervent champion of the work. It is one of the most popular of Tchaikovsky's compositions and among the best known of all piano concertos.
POWELL: How to Train Your Dragon
This is a story how to train your dragon is a story about a timid Viking boy who discovers he has a natural talent for training and domesticating his biggest fear - fire-breathing dragons. The movie was a great success and the soundtrack by John Powell earned him his first Academy Award nomination.
STRAVINSKY: Firebird Suite (1919)
The Firebird Suite is a ballet and orchestral concert work written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company. It is based on the Russian fairy tales of the Firebird and the blessing and curse it possesses for its owner. It was first performed at the Opéra de Paris on 25 June 1910 and was an immediate success, catapulting Stravinsky to international fame.