Chester Philharmonic Orchestra are delighted to be returning to Chester Cathedral with a full size orchestrra for the first time since the pandemic. Find out more from Chester Philharmonic Orchestra here …
April Fredrick returns to the Orchestra as soprano soloist in Cantaloube’s Songs of the Auvergne and in Mahler’s fourth symphony after an acclaimed performance of Richard Straus’s four last songs.
Canteloube travelled extensively in France collecting folk songs. In the Songs of Auvergne and he manages to distil the essence of the landscape and people not only in the songs but also in the orchestration. The words of the songs are written in Occitan, an old French dialect.
The last movement of Mahler’s 4th Symphony features a soprano soloist who presents a child’s vision of heaven, ‘the Heavenly Life’. The second movement depicts ‘Death takes the Fiddle’ with a solo violin tuned a tone above the rest of the orchestra giving a good natured but ghostly view of death throughout the movement.
This Symphony is one Mahler’s shorter works compared to his other symphonies.
The concert begins with the concert overture Die Schöne Melusine, the fair Melusine. It is based on a German legend about a water nymph who marries a Count. But, a condition of the marriage is that he must never enter her room on a Saturday when she takes on the form of a mermaid. The overture reflects the river.
April Fredrick our soloist has a passion for nuance and text which gets to the heart of both music and character. She discovered Mahler during her first year at the Royal Academy where she gained a Masters and Doctorate. She has never found another composer who moves her in quite the same way
The conductor for this concert is Richard Howarth who is inspires the orchestra with the depth of his experience both as a professional violinist and conductor.
The Chester Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the North West’s premier non-professional orchestras. Further details of the concerts and the orchestra including a complete list of past concerts can be seen on the Orchestra’s web site: www.chesterphilorchestra.co.uk
