This concert contains three knockout masterpieces of the early twentieth century and promises to be a musical assault on the senses (in all the right ways!)
Sir William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast catapulted him to international recognition and was the first British choral and orchestral piece to make its mark after the oratorios of Elgar. It tells the story of the heathen King of Babylon, Belshazzar, who gave a great feast where he used the stolen sacred drinking vessels of the exiled Jews in Babylon. Walton’s music gallops along at high speed painting vivid pictures of this dramatic story, with quirky corners, catchy harmonies and constant surprises; its pace is breath-taking and if you have never heard it before experiencing the large chorus and huge orchestra will prove to be an unmissable event.
Like Walton and Belshazzar, Enigma Variations secured Elgar’s international reputation. This hugely popular orchestral piece is a masterwork of miniature pictures; each movement represents a portrayal of one of his friends, including the famous Nimrod. The ‘enigma’ is the hidden theme (supposedly), the secret of which Elgar took to his grave.
Five Mystical Songs by Vaughan Williams, a past president of Wimbledon Choral Society, is a setting of poems by the British poet, George Herbert. Set for baritone soloist, chorus and orchestra, there are exquisite gems such as I got me flowers and Come my way all finished with the familiar and rousing Antiphon (Let all the world in every corner sing).
All three pieces were composed within a period of thirty two years, by, arguably, the greatest British composers of the 19th – 20th centuries, and yet they have an extraordinary resonance with modern Britain ideally suited to the Orchestra Vitae (‘Life in Performance’) with the magnificent baritone voice of Matthew Brook.