Concert - The Lewes Concert Orchestra

The English composer Edward Edgar wrote much of his work in a bombastic and jovial style - Land of Hope and Glory remains his most popular piece - but after WW 1 his mood changed; and depressed by world events, he started composing in a completely different, more thoughtful manner. The most notable work to come out of this period, the cello Concerto in E-Minor - is the cornerstone of tonight’s concert, chosen to mark Elgar’s 150th anniversary. The song came about in strange circumstances: he had his tonsils removed under general anaesthetic, and when he came to he asked for a pen and paper, and wrote down the melody that would become the first theme of the piece. He completed it while recovering from the operation in the cottage he was renting near Flittleworth, in West Sussex. The opening performance, In London in 1919, was an unmitigated disaster, but the piece has become a great favourite, and Elgar was very fond of it. During his final illness in 1934 he hummed the tune to a friend, telling him “if you hear it after my death while you’re walking in the Malvern Hills, don’t worry, it’ll only be me”.

Guest artist for tonight’s concert is Lewes-born cellist Daniel Keane (who moonlights as a jazz pianist in an eponymous Trio); the conductor is Adrian Shephard. Other composers on the bill are Mikhael Ivanovich Glinka, Jean Sibelius, Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn. AG