Wymondham Symphony Orchestra welcome everyone to attend our Spring Concert on 23 March 2024 at 7pm! It might be a few weeks after Valentine's Day, but love will still be the theme for the night.

As a fitting start to the concert in our 40th year, we’re delighted to begin with a piece composed by our original musical director Ian Hÿtch, who played a major role in building up Wymondham Symphony Orchestra between 1984 and 2003. The programme will continue with the ever-popular Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture by Tchaikovsky. Opening with a serene clarinet/bassoon melody, the music then shifts to suggest violence, with a chaotic theme representing the feuding Montague and Capulet families. The soaring love theme of Romeo and Juliet themselves progresses, with an increasing sense of urgency until it is reprised in a minor key, suggesting their tragic deaths. We’ll continue with Blumine by Mahler. Originally written as the second movement in his Symphony 1, he found it to be too sentimental and removed it from the symphony. The score was lost until 1966 and it is often now performed as a stand-alone piece. The frantic Ritual Fire Dance by de Falla is in stark contrast, full of fast trills and ornamental flourishes.

A selection of pieces from Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suites (both I and II) will follow. Originally written to accompany a play by Henrik Ibsen, the Peer Gynt Suite describes the story of a Norwegian peasant. You should recognise the famous movements including Morning and the exciting In the Hall of the Mountain King. Finally, we will close with the short, intense Cavalleria Rusticana opera by Mascagni.

Tickets are available online at https://www.trybooking.com/uk/eventlist/wso. There will also be some availability on the door, but we encourage attendees to purchase tickets in advance to beat the queues. Prices are £15, Friends of the WSO £13 and under 18s are free.

More details about the orchestra can be found at www.wymondhamsymphonyorchestra.org.uk or on our Facebook page.