OSWESTRY SCHOOL

Recital SeriesTwenty-Sixth Season 2015-2016

Subscriber and ticket details

Individual tickets can be bought for each concert, as detailed in theenclosed booking form, but we highly recommend the amazinglypriced Subscriber Ticket at just £85 for the whole Series. (Sincethese bargain tickets are limited to just 200, early application isstrongly recommended.)

When applying for tickets, please make cheques payable to‘Oswestry School’.

With one exception, all concerts are in Holy Trinity Church, RoftStreet, Oswestry, beginning at 7.30pm. (NB The Notos concert (14November) is in the Peter Humphreys Centre, Oswestry School).

Tickets and further information from:

Mrs Grice, Oswestry School, Upper Brook Street, Oswestry,Shropshire, SY11 2TL.Telephone (during term time only) 01691 681135.

Also from Oswestry’s premier bookshop Booka, first-prize winner of the2015 National Independent Bookshop award. (Many congratulations,Carrie and Tim!) Here you can purchase your tickets, browse the excellentbook selection, enjoy a delicious coffee and - O ye of weak will! - succumbto many a confectionery lure.

OSWESTRY SCHOOL

Series Director

Christopher Symons

As we now embark upon our second quarter-century – the twenty-sixth year since oursmall beginnings in 1989 – we can look back with great pleasure on our RetrospectiveCelebratory Anniversary Year, whose six memorable concerts featured welcomereturnees. Following John Lill’s opening concert we welcomed the City of LondonSinfonia and clarinet maestro Michael Collins; next, the superb Royal String Quartetfrom Poland, and then the two-piano recital from that ever-youthful duo of MartinRoscoe and Christopher Symons; then the European Union Chamber Orchestra, and,to close, a truly moving Rachmaninov Vespers from Ex Cathedra. Audience supportwas amazing, as usual, with the Series’ reputation seeming to reach further and further.

Now for a new season of artistes who are mostly here for the first time. We open inOctober with the first of our two orchestral concerts, the world-renowned Academy ofAncient Music, whose programme includes symphonies by Haydn and Mozart. Then,in November, the young Notos (Piano) Quartet, already early in their career acclaimedfor the quality of their musicianship. Then in February, one of the great Americanstring quartets, the Escher Quartet. In March, a very welcome return from thefabulously popular King’s Singers, and then, in May, the highly-gifted young Bulgarianpianist Galin Ganchev (now studying at the Royal Academy of Music), whose recentrecital at Shrewsbury School was hailed as ‘stunning’ by the capacity audience. To roundoff the Season in June, the second of the orchestral concerts and another welcomereturn: the Manchester Camerata, with a programme that includes one of Mozart’shappiest piano concertos, No 23 in A major, K488.

I hope you will agree that this is a series of concerts of the highest calibre, and willonce again wish to support it as fully as possible.

A warm welcome to the 26th season of the

Oswestry School Recital Series

from the director Christopher Symons

Manchester Camerata

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What a delight, to welcome back therenowned King’s Singers, founded in 1968!Acclaimed for their life-affirmingvirtuosity and irresistible charm, The King’sSingers are in global demand and have sung in most of the world’s most prestigious venues.Their work – synonymous with the best in vocal performance – appeals to a vastinternational audience, with over 120 concerts each year in their regular tours throughoutEurope, the USA, Asia and Australasia.

They have an enviable recording tally: double Grammy award-winning artists, and in 2013chosen (only of only two vocal ensembles) to enter the Gramophone Hall of Fame, inrecognition of their unique discography of over 150 albums. The first half of theirwonderfully varied programme centres around shorter works relating to the Lord’s Prayer,whilst the second half features ‘a selection of The King’s Singers much-loved close-harmonyfavourites.’ An evening not to miss.

Yet another of our most happy collaborations with the Shropshire Music Trust andOrchestras Live, this time with the highly-esteemed Academy of Ancient Music undertheir soloist director Pavlo Beznosiuk. Founded in 1973 by Christopher Hogwood, thisrenowned ensemble enjoys a global reputation. Performing on period instruments, andtaking inspiration from the forgotten sound-worlds of the past, the orchestra combinesscholarship with superb musicianship to create performances acclaimed for theirvitality and immediacy. Their very varied Oswestry programme includes music byMozart, Kraus, Haydn and the Violin Concerto of Franz Benda.

This exciting young Bulgarian pianist comes from a familyof professional musicians, and studied piano from the age ofsix at the national School of Arts in Varna before coming toShrewsbury School in 2010, where (thanks to winning amusic scholarship) he has continued his studies with PeterBradley-Fulgoni, and created quite a musical stir. His recent concerts have all beengreeted with delight, and seem to reflect what he recently wrote: ‘My desire to practisethe piano and give concerts has led me to the threshold of what promises to be afascinating and magical life. I love to make my audience experience at the deepest levelthe works of music I perform. When I sit at the piano I immediately feel at one with it,and such a feeling of ‘unity’ with the instrument cannot be explained by anything otherthan the language of music itself.’ Whatever his programme choice (still to be decided),I know that this will be a very special occasion.

Taking its name from the Dutch graphicartist MC Escher – inspired by hismethod of interplay between individualcomponents working together to create a

whole - this brilliant Escher Quartet (founded in 2005) was a BBC New GenerationArtist from 2010-2012, with debut performances at the Wigmore and Cadogan Halls(BBC Proms). Now resident in their home-town of New York, the group serves asArtists of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center.

As well as regular USA tours, the quartet is increasingly building an internationalreputation, with recent engagements in Israel, Paris, Berlin, Switzerland, Australia,Hong Kong and Brazil. Their superb programme comprises music by Mozart, Bartokand Beethoven.

Escher String QuartetTuesday 9th February 2016,

7.30pm, Holy Trinity Church

Galin Ganchev (piano)

Saturday 7th May 2016, 7.30pm

Holy Trinity Church

Manchester Camerata

with Christopher Symons (piano)Thursday 9th June 2016, 7.30pm, Holy Trinity Church

The King’s SingersSaturday 19th March 2016, 7.30pm

Holy Trinity Church

To close the Season with music in happy vein, a very welcome second visit byManchester Camerata, widely regarded as one of Europe’s leading chamber orchestras,and known for the dynamism of its playing, innovative collaborations and pioneeringLearning and Participation work. The orchestra, founded in 1972, is named after theFlorentine Camerata, a group of 16th-century musicians, writers and thinkers dedicatedto the progress of the arts - the same principles by which the orchestra seeks to breathenew life into the classics and uncover music of the future.

This feeling of excitement and bounce seems well put by their Music Director, the greatHungarian musician Gabor Takacs-Nagy: ‘I feel music has to be spiritual medicine forpeople. Every note has to dance, sing or say something. This is how I see ourperformances – changing people’s moods and lifting them.’ I’m quite sure theirperformance here will do just that, with a CPE Bach Symphony, one of Mozart’shappiest piano concertos (No 23 in A major, K488) and finally Mozart’s Symphony No29 in A major, K201. (Photograph on the front)

This brilliant young German quartet has alreadywon a host of prizes and has a full concert diary,including such prestigious venues as theWigmore and Concertgebouw, numerousEuropean festivals, and a tour of South-EastAsia. Since its foundation in 2007 it has receivedcoaching from the Alban Berg and Guarneri

Quartets and the Beaux Arts Trio. In the 2014/15 season the ensemble held theWaverley Chamber Music Fellowship at the RNCM. Glowing critical tributes include‘virtuosic brilliance and technical perfection… passion and great sensitivity… matureinterpretative powers and an admirable beauty of sound.’ Their programme comprisesthree of the loveliest piano quartets, by Mozart, Schumann and Brahms.

Notos Piano QuartetSaturday 14th November 2015, 7.30pm

Peter Humphreys Centre, Oswestry

School

Academy of Ancient MusicSaturday 17th October 2015, 7.30pm, Holy Trinity Church

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