Saturday March 8th 2025 – St James Church, Taunton 7.30pm
Bernstein – Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Rodrigo – Guitar Concierto de Aranjuez (soloist Alex Roche)
Shostakovitch – Symphony no 1
The Spring Concert on 8th March is packed with unmissable musical treasures. Leonard Bernstein wrote the music for West Side Story in the late 1950s. The success of the stage musical, and film that followed, ensured his fame as a composer, but he revisited the score and selected nine sections that he reassembled as Symphonic Dances that stands alone in its own right. In this concert we will be delighted by familiar melodies that are still so fresh and dynamic with vibrant instrumental combinations that we cannot fail to be enraptured.
Because of the Spanish Civil War, Joaquín Rodrigo was living abroad when he composed his Concierto de Aranjuez, but we are immediately transported to Spain by the lively rhythms and haunting melodies played on that country’s iconic solo instrument. Alex Roche, our soloist, is a multi-prizewinning guitarist, arranger, composer and teacher.
Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Symphony No 1 at the age of 18 as a graduation assignment at the Leningrad Conservatory, but it was a tremendous success from its premiere and soon took the international music world by storm. It is no wonder that the directors of the Conservatory were excited by the young genius they had nurtured. You, too, can be captivated by this wonderful music simply by attending our concert.
Saturday 14th June 2025 – St James Church, Taunton 7.30pm
Stanford – Irish Rhapsody no 4 in A minor
Arnold – Clarinet Concerto no 2 (soloist Guillermo Ramasasa)
Walton – Symphony no 1
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For more information about what is happening in the Taunton and Somerset area click on the link for the latest edition of Musical Shairs November 2024 Final