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Season Introduction

Season Features

2008 concerts

5 October
Sunday, 2.45pm

26 October
Sunday, 2.45pm

15 November
Saturday, 7.30pm

23 November
Sunday, 2.45pm

7 December
Sunday, 2.45pm

31 December
Wednesday, 2.45pm


2009 concerts

18 January
Sunday, 2.45pm

8 February
Sunday, 2.45pm

1 March
Sunday, 2.45pm

15 March
Sunday, 2.45pm

29 March
Sunday, 2.45pm

Sunday 7 December 2008 2.45pm
Brighton Dome Concert Hall

Vaughan Williams
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Finzi
Clarinet Concerto

Purcell (arr. Britten)
Chacony in G minor

Britten
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge

Barry Wordsworth conductor
Michael Collins clarinet

Vaughan Williams' anniversary year ends with a concert that puts his music in the context of the English string orchestra tradition of which he was a central figure. One of his best-loved works, the Fantasia is based on a hymn tune by the 16th-century English composer Thomas Tallis and creates a rich sound world using two separate string orchestras with a solo string quartet.

From the 17th century, Henry Purcell's Chacony uses a dance tune as its bass, over which his ornate variations are arranged for full string orchestra by his 20th-century counterpart, Benjamin Britten.

Britten's own Variations on a theme by his teacher, Frank Bridge, was the work that first brought him an international reputation with their melodic brilliance, and a range of emotion from light-hearted parody to tragic intensity.

Gerald Finzi's Clarinet Concerto, probably the best-loved after Mozart's, blends folk-like simplicity with a rhythmic vitality and radiant writing for the combination of clarinet and string orchestra. Since winning the woodwind prize in the first ever BBC Young Musician of the Year in 1978 Michael Collins has been the most respected clarinettist of his generation, here making his third appearance with the BPO.

Tickets £8 - £30 (Click here to book online)

Sponsored by Julian Pelling

1.45pm Pre-concert interview onstage with Michael Collins (Tickets £2.50)

Click here to download the printed programme for this concert
(available at least 48 hours before the concert)