Benjamin Britten was an English composer, conductor and pianist, and is strongly associated with the Suffolk town of Aldeburgh, where he lived and composed. The East Anglian coastline influenced many of his works, including most famously the opera Peter Grimes with its 'Four Sea Interludes'. Fanfare for St Edmundsbury was premiered in 1959 in the grounds of Bury St Edmunds Cathedral in Suffolk. It is made up of three separate and contrasting 'verses’, each introduced by one of the three trumpeters. The final verse brings together the three previous verses to create a thrilling finale.

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Gene Koshinski is a versatile musician, working as both performer and composer in the solo, chamber, symphonic, jazz, pop and world music fields. He is also a percussion professor at the University of Delaware. Get It! is a challenging concert piece for bassoon and percussion which, in the composer’s words, is designed to 'unleash the bassoonist’s inner rock star'! The percussionist has two instruments – a hi-hat (a pair of cymbals normally seen in a drum kit) and a cajón (a wooden box which the player sits on). The piece was composed in 2011 and is fun and funky. There is also a cheeky reference just before the end to one of the most famous bassoon solos of all – the opening of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

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Grażyna Bacewicz was the third of four children, all of whom were taught violin, piano and music theory by their father. She composed her first piece aged 13 and went on to study violin, piano and composition at the Warsaw Conservatory. She continued her composition studies in Paris with one of the most celebrated composition teachers, Nadia Boulanger. Bacewicz carved out a dual career as both composer and violinist. She was leader of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1936 to 1938, during which time the orchestra performed Bacewicz’s music including her Violin Concerto No 1. Duets on Folk Themes was composed in 1945. For this concert, we are performing four short pieces from this work: 'Praeludium', 'Kujawiak', 'Nokturn' and 'Marsz Groteskowy'.

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Born in Spain, Oscar Navarro is a composer who has written for orchestras and chamber groups as well as film and TV soundracks. He was inspired to compose Juego de Ladrones (Den of Thieves) after reading Miguel de Cervantes’ 1621 novel Rinconete y Cortadillo, which follows the escapades of two teenage boys who decide to run away from home in search of adventure. They run into various criminals and land up in Seville. Navarro uses seductive melodies and even clapping to evoke the beautiful Spanish city, so sit back, close your eyes and imagine the sun on your face!

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Composer, cellist, guitarist and conductor Heitor Villa-Lobos was born and died in the former Brazilian capital, Rio de Janeiro. His father died when he was just twelve, and so the young Villa-Lobos supported his family by playing the cello in cinema and theatre orchestras. He also enjoyed playing guitar with Brazilian street bands. Villa-Lobos’ love of Brazilian folk music inspired his many classical compositions (he wrote more than 2,000 pieces), and this is best demonstrated in his nine Bachianas Brasileiras – literally ‘Bach-inspired Brazilian pieces’. Enjoy listening to the flute and bassoon weaving around one another before finally settling at the very end.

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Holly Harrison is an Australian composer from Western Sydney. She has written music for orchestra and chamber groups, as well as pieces for accordion, theremin and even body percussion. Her music is energetic, inventive and witty. Away from composing, Harrison plays drum kit and percussion in the improvised rock duo Tabua-Harrison with electric guitarist Joey Tabua. Harrison wrote Swoop in 2020. It was inspired by a family of crows which nested by her home. She would watch and hear them as she composed! Sliding notes, swooping sounds and rapid descending lines imitate the birds’ swooping motion as well as the sound of the crows’ call. As she explains, ‘The work quite literally swoops and sweeps in different directions throughout, before holding down a sustained groove’.

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Thank you for joining us for this Relaxed Lunchtime Performance.

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