Overture The Fair Melusine – Mendelssohn
Oboe Concerto in D major – Richard Strauss
Symphony No 41 in C major, Jupiter – Mozart
Soloist: James Turnbull
Conductor: Robert Browning
Tickets £20.00; £17.00; £14.00; £8.00 Students half price / Under 19s £1.00. http://www.fernehamhall.co.uk/whats-on/music/havant-chamber-orchestra-1/
Mendelssohn was a master of the concert overture and Havant Chamber Orchestra begin this concert with one of his finest – ‘The Fair Melusine’. This was inspired by the dramatisation of a folk tale about a woman who turns into a mermaid every Saturday and then into a dragon when her husband disobeys orders and spies on her!
Also on the programme are two works which came late in their composers’ lives. The Symphony No. 41 was the last that Mozart wrote. It was nicknamed the ‘Jupiter’ but as far as we know this was not Mozart’s idea and actually happened some years after Mozart’s death when the piece was being performed in London.
Richard Strauss lived a considerably longer life than Mozart and was 80 years old when he was visited by an American oboist who suggested he write an Oboe Concerto. The work was premiered in February 1946 in Zurich and is lyrical and a delight to listen to.