The concert opens with Anna Clyne’s ‘This Midnight Hour’, inspired by the poetry of Baudelaire and Jimenez, and described by critics as ‘strange and beautiful’ and ‘brilliant, lyrical and resonant’.
Dmitri Shostakovich gave his son Maxim a piano concerto for his 19th birthday - not a gift every father could come up with. Maxim premiered the work at his graduation from the Moscow Conservatoire in 1957, and it has remained one of the composer’s most popular works. Not surprisingly, the work sounds youthful, energetic and cheerful.
An even more substantial present was Tchaikovsky’s 4th symphony, which was completed in 1878 and dedicated to his correspondent, confidante and patron Mme von Meck, with the inscription ‘to my best friend’. Mme von Meck persuaded Tchaikovsky to provide a ‘programme’ for the work, which he summarised as ‘all of life is harsh reality, with only fleeting dreams of happiness’. These rather gloomy sentiments underly a powerfully expressive work full of beautiful Tchaikovsky melodies and brilliant orchestration.
more about City of Cambridge Symphony Orchestra
The City of Cambridge Symphony Orchestra started life in 1973 as the Harston String Orchestra. Later, as a result of a change in venue, it became the Barton String Orchestra. In 2000 Leon Lovett took over as conductor and shortly afterwards, the orchestra changed its name to the Cambridge String Players. Under his baton, the orchestra has appeared regularly in West Road Concert Hall and in other venues around Cambridge. In addition to playing works for strings, the orchestra increasingly invited wind players to join it to perform works from the symphonic repertoire. Recognising this change of emphasis, the musicians decided that the orchestra needed a new name and in September 2008, it became the City of Cambridge Symphony Orchestra. In February 2012 Robert Hodge became CCSO’s new conductor.