Fitzwilliam Cafe Concert Programme

Last Friday (20th January) saw our first Café Concert of 2012- The Fitzwilliam Duo, featuring Colin Scobie (violin) and Heather Tuach (cello). Heather will be a familiar face for all those who come to our Main Concerts, as she heads up our celli section. Colin is the newest member of the Fitzwilliam Quartet, following the retirement of their second violinist of 37 years Jonathan Sparey, and he currently plays a violin from Jonathan’s own collection.

As mentioned above, the duo played a varied repertoire that ranged from Bach, to Bartok, to Kodaly. We had a number of audience members approach us about the pieces they played, so in response to this we will post the Cafe Concert programmes after they take place, so all those who came can find out exactly what it is they heard.

Here’s the programme for The Fitzwilliam Duo’s Café Concert:

'Methodical' Sonata in A Major - Georg Philipp Telemann

Two-Part Inventions - Johann Sebastian Bach

Hungarian Folk Melodies - Béla Bartok

Duo Op. 7 - Zoltan Kodaly

Passacaglia - Johan Halvorson

For more information about upcoming Café Concerts, please visit our website.

Fitzwilliam Kicks Off Cafe Concerts for 2012

We’ve just had our first Café Concert of 2012 and you’ll be pleased to know that it was amazing. With the Café Concerts we try and showcase as much talent from across the musical spectrum as possible and this lunchtime was no exception.

The Fitzwilliam Duo opened our Spring season for us with a beautiful programme to include Bach, Kodaly, Bartok and Halvorsen. The Duo was made up of the famous quartet’s cellist Heather Tuach (who heads up Southern Sinfonia’s celli) and violinist Colin Scobie (the most recent addition to the quartet). We particularly enjoyed the Kodaly piece.

Lots of our usual friends were there, but we were also really pleased to see lots of new faces as well.

We’ll post some more detailed information about what they played as well as some photos of them in action next week…so watch this space.

Out & About in Newbury

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week (10^th & 11^th Jan) saw Southern Sinfonia’s crack team of leaflet distributers out and about in Newbury doing what they do best…distributing leaflets.

We’ve gone for a Concert Card this season, rather than a brochure, because it’s more environmentally-friendly and is also far more handbag/ pocket/ fridge-friendly because of its size. (It’s only A6- i.e. the size of a postcard). Our lovely lime green Concert Cards outline all of our local events up till April and offer an exclusive discount of 10% on tickets for our Main Concerts when you buy your tickets in advance.

So, equipped with a boot-load of these, Eileen (Southern Sinfonia’s Marketing Co-ordinator) and Evie (her sister) set off across Newbury and the surrounding area to distribute them to Southern Sinfonia’s current audience members (and hopefully some new ones too).

If you didn’t get one through your door, they’re also in all arts venues across West Berkshire, so you can pick one up there. Here’s a pic of one, so you know what to look for…

NYE Viennese Gala Concert with Claire Rutter & Stephen Gadd

On New Year’s Eve (2011) we were in Winchester at the Guildhall with Stephen Gadd and Claire Rutter for their Viennese Gala Concert. We were led by our very own Alexander Hohenthal, who flew in from Austria (where he lives) especially for the concert, and conducted by Matthew Wood.

We were very excited to have been invited to play with Stephen and Claire, the latter of whom is currently starring as Tosca at English National Opera, and it was great to hear them perform together.  

The Guildhall was an awesome venue to play in. Although we did all feel a bit like we were in Crystal Maze when we tried to find the toilets (which are on Ground Floor by the way, should you ever need to know). The hall was open to the public during the day, when the rehearsal took place, so it was really nice to have people pop in to have a chat and a listen.

Favourite pieces of the evening have to be The Blue Danube (Johann Strauss II), the Overture to ‘Orpheus in the Underworld’ (Jacques Offenbach) and ‘On my Lips Every Kiss is like Wine’ from ‘Giuditta’ (Franz Lehar).