24 Jan 2025
The St Albans Chamber Orchestra Amadeus’ first concert of the year features the St Albans pianist Andrew Blankfield (pictured), who will play Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto – The Emperor.
The programme also includes Malcolm Arnold’s Serenade for Small Orchestra and Haydn’s Symphony No. 103 – the Drum Roll – a must for local lovers of classical music.
Beethoven disliked Emperors, famously crossing out the dedication to Napoleon on his Eroica Symphony so it is a bit of a puzzle why this piece has become known as the Emperor Concerto. It is a magnificent piece, heroic in style and probably one of the most popular piano concertos of all time.
Malcolm Arnold composed over 130 film scores and is one of the most prolific composers of the last century. His Serenade for Small Orchestra has three short movements, starts gently and builds to an energetic and military final movement.
Haydn’s Drum Roll Symphony (so called because of the long drum roll with which it starts) was the 11th of the 12 ‘London’ symphonies he wrote for performance during the second visit he made to this country in the last decade of the 1700s. Haydn (known as the Father of the Symphony) was very popular in England and it’s not difficult to see why; his music is usually cheerful (except for the opening of this symphony!) and tuneful.
The concert is conducted by Daniel Hogan, making his second appearance with the orchestra, and the soloist is Andrew Blankfield who has played all the Beethoven Piano Concertos (including nos. 1, 2 and 4 with Amadeus) and is a long time resident of St Albans.
The concert starts at 7.30pm on Saturday January 25 and is in St Peter’s Church which has now lost its pews and is warm! Discounted tickets in advance are available from TicketSource and full price tickets can be purchased on the door.
