Waifs & Strays – some musical orphans and ragamuffins of classical music

Resonance Ensemble and conductor Tony Ryan delve into some less well-known music by Rossini and Prokofiev, as well as a hidden gem from an almost completely unknown composer.

Rossini’s comic opera Il Signor Bruschino is rarely heard these days although its sparkling overture is one of the composer’s most delightful – full of spirit and some novel special effects.

Another forgotten waif is the composer and horn player Jan Václav Stich who translated his name to Giovanni Punto when he ran away from home at the age of 20 and went to Italy. Our horn soloist for this concert, Alex Morton, suggested we include Punto’s Horn Concerto No. 5 in our programme. It’s proved to be quite a find and demonstrates what an exceptional virtuoso this composer must have been.

Also on our programme is one of Sergei Prokofiev’s least played works – his Overture on Hebrew Themes, another stray masterpiece that deserves to be heard more often because of its catchy melodies and colourful orchestration. But, perhaps even more of a waif and a stray is the same composer’s Symphony No. 7, which was completed in 1952, just a year before Prokofiev died.

Resonance Ensemble has previously played Prokofiev’s very popular Symphony No. 1 – the Classical Symphony and, although his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies are also frequently played and recorded, the less often heard Seventh is perhaps the composer’s most gorgeously tuneful and harmonically adventurous. Less dramatic and aggressive than some of Prokofiev’s earlier symphonies, the Seventh is a heart-felt and lyrical masterpiece that will remind listeners of his uplifting and moving Romeo and Juliet ballet music.

Don’t miss this latest imaginative and innovative programme from Resonance Ensemble and conductor Tony Ryan.

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