Part of Manchester Guitar Festival
An Anglo-Australian concert where the Northern Chamber Orchestra is joined by outstanding Australian guitarist, Craig Ogden, who gave the world premiere of Andy Scott’s concerto with the orchestra at The Stoller Hall in 2017.
Craig will perform two works; Malcolm Arnold’s Guitar Concerto; and Tasmanian-born composer Peter Sculthorpe’s Nourlangie, influenced by South-East Asian and native Australian music and written for solo guitar, strings and percussion. Percy Grainger, an Australian composer who lived the larger part of his life in USA, spent a lot of time collecting English folk songs. Irish Tune from County Derry is a great example of his distinctive style, richly harmonised for strings with a horn introduced at the climax.
Two of the classic English string pieces, both with solo string quartet, bookend this programme. Those who have seen the famous Ken Russell biopic of Elgar will always associate Introduction and Allegro with an exhilarating horse-ride in the Malvern Hills. Vaughan Williams’ Tallis Fantasia uses a second string orchestra which seems to echo like monks chanting in the cloister.
For this concert the Northern Chamber Orchestra is thrilled to be joined by talented students from Chetham’s School of Music.
The Northern Chamber Orchestra is Orchestra in Association at The Stoller Hall. The members of the orchestra (approximately twenty five in total) are distinguished chamber musicians who regularly appear as soloists. The 2021-22 season features pianist Steven Osborne, oboist John Roberts, cellist (and NCO President) Raphael Wallfisch, violinist (and NCO Artist in Association) Chloë Hanslip, horn player Ben Hulme and guitarist Craig Ogden.
