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Hastings Sinfonia returned to the De La Warr Pavilion on 3rd December for a fabulous Christmas concert, including the world premiere of Polo Piatti's Christmas Concerto for Guitar & Orchestra with charismatic Italian star guitarist GiulioTampalini.
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With special guests:
Giulio Tampallini - Guitar
Ken Roberts - composer/conductor
Masha Shapoval - ballet dancer
St. Richard's Catholic College Choir
Battle Abbey School Choir
East Sussex School Of Performing Arts
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Performing
Christmas favourites, such as:
The Snowman, Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, Leroy Anderson’s Christmas Festival and Sleigh Ride music from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker
New Christmas works plus much-loved Christmas carols
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Recording of Polo Piatti's Christmas Guitar Concerto with Sergio Puccini.
performed by Giulio Tampalini 3rd December at the De La Warr Pavilion
The concert opened with Wagner’s Meistersingers Overture. This is bite-size Wagner, delivering all the German composer’s splendour and musical innovation in a piece of just 10 minutes.
After the Wagner, the orchestra turned to Dvorak, who wrote his New World Symphony in 1893 in New York. The Largo movement opens with stirring brass chords before moving into the lilting main theme.
Pianist Howard Southern, who dazzled with his Chopin and Gershwin in recent concerts, treated us to the Adagio from Grieg’s piano concerto, an opportunity to hear a towering piano classic performed live. The slow movement is dreamlike, beautiful, and utterly transporting.
Wagner rival Verdi’s wonderful La Forza del Destino Overture takes the audience on a musical journey, with a captivating tune by the woodwind, (that found huge new fame thanks to an iconic Stella Artois advert in the 1990s featuring a seller of red carnations…), before the piece moves to its joyous, rousing finale.
The orchestra also took huge pride in performing Piatti’s Catch Me If You Can, a marvellous, witty piece performed by trombone soloist Chris Schmidt.
In the same year as Dvorak was composing his New World Symphony, Finnish composer Sibelius was writing the Karelia overture, another richly textured, evocative piece with a tune you will recognise and enjoy.
More 19th Century musical delight comes from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which the orchestra will perform excerpts from, including Baba Yaga.
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"Performing Polo Piatti's Libera Nos Oratorio was an utterly thrilling and unforgettable experience. Musically, the Oratorio takes you on a powerful, emotional journey, through the hope of creation, the self-assuredness of shaping our world through laws and rites, the despair of humankind’s encounter with death and damnation, and finally the promise of redemption and joy in togetherness. It achieves this through evocative melodies and rhythms, and passages of spine-tingling beauty and depth.
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It left performers and the audience moved and elated. Being able to premiere this work was a real privilege and encountering musical influences from so many different cultural and religious traditions - the result of years of research and intuitive understanding by Piatti - was deeply enriching.
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Playing with the London Mozart Players was a real highlight and the musical skills we learned from them will benefit our orchestra for years to come. It was also a joy to share the stage with the children of St Richard’s Catholic college Children’s Choir and share the power of this piece with the next generation of musicians.”
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Fiesta Concert
'A Night Of Passion'
Saturday 6th July 2019
A sell out concert with music, dance and song from Spain, France and Latin America.
What an evening!
Soloists:
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Giulio Tampalini - guitar
Thomasin Trezise - soprano
Ana Leon - flamenco dancer
Diana Freeman's school of dance
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Hastings Pirates Day 16th July 2017
The orchestra performed some great pirate and sea-themed music to a large enthusiastic audience. The orchestra all dressed as pirates and a great time was had by all. Yo ho ho!
Battle of the Somme Film Concert 21st May, 2017
Hastings Sinfonia was delighted to play live to the restored 1916 film of The Battle Of The Somme as part of The Battle Of The Somme Centenary Tour. We were honoured to have the composer Laura Rossi and Dr Toby Haggith of the Imperial War Museums giving opening speeches. This was a challenging work to organise and perform but was a resounding success with nearly a full house, Thank you very much to everyone involved.
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