Springtime @ Avondale with Fernleigh Young Musicians Orchestra

Join us in celebrating the season with a fantastic program of orchestral music, featuring the Fernleigh Young Musicians Orchestra. We are also thrilled to showcase the Fernleigh Junior String Ensemble, under the direction of Beth Porter, along with our student-led Fernleigh Cello Ensemble. Our dedicated young musicians look forward to sharing their musical development in these special Springtime concerts.

The Music

Elgar - Serenade for String Orchestra

Elgar's serenade has a youthful charm while at the same time displaying indications of the skills the composer developed as he progressed towards musical maturity. It is reportedly the first of his compositions with which Elgar professed himself satisfied. The opening bars of the first movement will be familiar to most, particularly to listeners of a classical music station which uses it as introductory music. The work remains among the most frequently performed of all Elgar's music.

Mozart - Symphony No. 40

This is urgent, passionate music. The beginning – soft, murmurous accompaniment waiting on its melody – became a Romantic-era trope but was surely a shock to Mozart’s contemporaries. Schumann found the work “full of Hellenic grace”, but it is also full of violent dislocations, such as the abrupt lurch into F-sharp minor for the development section of the opening movement, in which harmony is further stretched as Mozart obsesses with the head of the main theme. Amazingly, Mozart is able to increase tension throughout, into a coda of deepest, darkest feeling.

Weber - Clarinet Concerto No. 2, featuring clarinet soloist Zachary Donoghoe

The Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in Eb major Op. 74 was first performed to frenetic applause in 1811. It is described as the more symphonic of his two concerti for clarinet, however there is a strikingly operatic character to it, especially in the second movement, the Romance. In the second half of that movement, the clarinet could be mistaken for a vocal solo, with the orchestra playing short chords in the manner of recitativo secco, as used by Mozart in The Marriage of Figaro. This reflects Weber’s love of classical form in general, and that of Mozart in particular.