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Summer 2025 Concert – “Music for a Summer’s Evening” 28/06/2025 @ The Anstice, 1 Anstice Square, Madeley, Telford, TF7 5BD
Doors 7.00pm for 7.30pm Start
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- Der Freischütz Overture Carl Maria von Weber
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream Felix Mendelssohn
- Vltava (The Moldau) from Má vlast Bedřich Smetana
- Summer Evening Frederick Delius
- Frühlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring) Johann Strauss II
- La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie) Overture Gioachino Rossini Conducted by Samuel Lellouch
Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826): Der Freischütz Overture (1821)
An essential work in the development of German Romantic opera, Weber’s opera Der Freischütz (The Marksman) is set in the forest of a German village and tells the story of a young marksman who makes a pact with dark forces to win a shooting contest and through that the hand of his beloved. The overture is a carefully structured orchestral summary of the opera’s thematic material and emotional atmosphere. It opens with an introduction in the horns evoking the hunting music representing the village life and competition, followed by more dramatic material reflecting the supernatural elements of the opera, and the lyrical love theme. Weber’s orchestration demonstrates a keen sense of drama, atmosphere and contrast, and gives prominence to one of his favourite instruments – the clarinet. The overture played a significant role in popularising the use of thematic overtures previewing dramatic content and was admired by later composers such as Berlioz and Wagner.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847): A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61 (1842)
Mendelssohn was only seventeen when he composed an Overture to A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, inspired by Shakespeare’s play. Sixteen years later, he was commissioned by King Frederick William IV of Prussia to write additional incidental music for a stage production of the play, resulting in Op. 61. The full score includes fourteen movements, of which the Overture, Scherzo, Nocturne, and Wedding March have become the most popular ones, being frequently performed as standalone pieces. The Overture is notable for its representation of the fairy world through shimmering string textures and quick and agile rhythms. The Scherzo, with its light woodwind writing, continues this magical atmosphere and provides material that serves as a transition between acts in the play. Featuring a prominent horn melody, the Nocturne depicts the romantic rest of the characters, while the Wedding March has become one of the most recognisable pieces of ceremonial music worldwide.
Interval
Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884): Vltava (The Moldau) from Má vlast (1874)
Vltava is the second of six symphonic poems that constitute Smetana’s Má vlast (My Homeland), a cycle written between 1874 and 1879 celebrating Czech landscape, history and legends. Vltava depicts the journey of the Moldau river, the longest river in the Czech Republic, from its source in the Bohemian Forest to its passage through Prague and onward to its confluence with the Elbe. While Smetana was completely deaf when he composed Vltava, the piece remains one of the most performed examples of the symphonic poem genre. The music begins with the flutes and clarinets, respectively representing the two small springs that merge to form the river. The river’s main theme, introduced by the strings, is an adaptation of an Italian Renaissance melody, La Mantovana, and has become Smetana’s most famous tune. As the river flows through the countryside, the music portrays a hunting scene, a rustic wedding, moonlight dancing water nymphs, and a virtuoso passage as the river goes through the St. John Rapids. The piece concludes with the river arriving into Prague, marked by a majestic tune with plenty of brass, before it dissolves into the waters of the Elbe.
Frederick Delius (1862–1934): Summer Evening (1890, rev. 1918)
Summer Evening is an early orchestral work by English composer Frederick Delius.
Composed in 1890 and revised in 1918, it is one of Delius’s earliest tone pictures, reflecting his growing interest in musical impressionism and atmosphere rather than in traditional symphonic development and structured forms. The piece evokes a quiet, reflective evening landscape. Harmonically rich and sparsely textured, it features gentle melodic lines, subtle dynamic shifts and a pervasive mood of serenity. Though not as frequently performed as his later works (On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, A Village Romeo and Juliet), Summer Evening foreshadows Delius’s mature style and his lifelong interest in natural and pastoral themes.
Johann Strauss II (1825–1899): Frühlingsstimmen (Voices of Spring), Op. 410 (1882)
Frühlingsstimmen is a concert waltz composed by Johann Strauss II in 1882. Known as the “Waltz King”, Strauss played a key role in raising the status of the waltz from dance music to concert repertoire. Originally written for coloratura soprano and orchestra, Frühlingsstimmen celebrates the arrival of spring with exuberant melodies, rapid coloratura passages and characteristic Viennese waltz rhythms. The piece opens with a flowing introduction and then transitions into a series of waltz sections that are thematically varied but unified in style and mood. Exemplifying the refinement and elegance of Viennese light music and frequently performed at the New Year concert in Vienna, Frühlingsstimmen remains a concert favourite, particularly in spring themed and New Year’s programs.
Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868): La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) Overture (1817)
Premiered at La Scala in Milan in 1817, Rossini’s opera La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) is a semiserious (opera semiseria) work which tells the story of a servant girl wrongfully accused of theft, with the true culprit revealed to be a magpie. The overture is one of Rossini’s most dramatic and widely performed orchestral introductions. It begins with a striking snare drum roll, a device rarely used in operatic overtures at the time. Following a majestic introduction, it launches into a bright and energetic allegro. The music includes brilliant orchestral flourishes, sudden dynamic contrasts, virtuoso woodwind passages featuring notably the piccolo to evoke the magpie, and trademark “Rossini crescendos”, an exciting buildup of orchestral sound over a repeated phrase. Structured as a selfcontained concert piece, the overture demonstrates Rossini’s skills in balancing drama and humour within the same musical piece.
Our Musical Director – Samuel Lellouch
Born in France, Samuel Lellouch received a formal musical education in Brussels Royal Conservatoire where he studied the violin with Naaman Sluchin and orchestral conducting with Yves Segers and Bart Bouckaert, graduating with a Bachelor and a Master in both disciplines. He further perfected his skills through two years at the London Conducting Academy course led by Denise Ham and some of the most prominent conductors in the UK including Toby Pursuer, Dominic Grier and Christopher Seaman. Samuel has taken part in several international masterclasses, conducting professional orchestras such as the London Classical Soloists (UK), the MAV Symphony Orchestra (Hungary) and the Beogradski
Sinfonicari (Serbia), benefitting from the tuition of reputed conductors and pedagogues
(Jorma Panula, Colin Metters). After holding conducting roles for the University of
Birmingham Wind Band and the Redditch Orchestra, Samuel took the role of Permanent Conductor of Telford Orchestra in March 2024. Aside his musical career, Samuel Lellouch is lecturing physics at the University of Birmingham where his research focuses on quantum mechanics and its technological applications.
Acknowledgements and Thanks
The committee and members of the Telford Orchestra are
extremely grateful for the support they have received from the
Jennifer Worth Literary Trust
We’d also like to express our thanks to the team at The Anstice who support our weekly rehearsals and to the guest players from other local orchestras and Institutions who are supporting us during the holiday period.
We would welcome new members to the orchestra for our next concert at
The Anstice December 6 2025.
Contact via www.telfordorchestra.org.uk
Players for 28th June 2025
| Flute Lisa Borland* Kate Gill Jean Webb (& piccolo)Oboe Kirsty Broomhead Adrian Turner* Clarinet Bassoon French Horn
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Trumpet Rob Croft Chris Cumming* Sally GillionsTrombone Alun David* Wendy Thomas Bass trombone Tuba & Ophicleide Percussion Timpani
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Violin 1 Jennie Barnett* Elaine Hooper James Hoyle Gosia Kosylak Alison Matthews Meryl WilliamsViolin 2 Frances Cooper Allen Davenport Violetta Davis* Rory Freckleton Sharon Wells
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Viola Helen Evers Marion Holland* Jenny Morris Atsuko Ota Dianne SlaterCello Sue Falder Greg Jenkins Julie Robertson John Sadler* Hannah Sedman-Smith Double Bass
*Star shows section leader |
