Gorton Philharmonic’s Summer Concert will be a celebration of friendship, opening with the overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – Wagner’s only comic opera. Gorton Philharmonic President Stephen Threlfall will then be joined by long-time friend and BBC Philharmonic violinist Tom Bangbala to perform Brahms’ Double Concerto, written to reconcile a broken friendship with the violin virtuoso Joachim. Mont Juic (Suite of Catalan dances), jointly composed by Lennox Berkeley and Benjamin Britten after they’d met in Barcelona, will add a touch of Iberia to proceedings before Elgar’s most loved work, his Variation on an original theme ‘Enigma Variations’– fourteen musical portraits of his close friends and acquaintances – brings their 2024/2025 season to a close in majestic style.
Tom and Stephen’s association with Gorton Philharmonic goes right back to 1973 when they were both Associate Members, with Tom sitting at the back of the 15-player first violin section and Stephen at the back of the 9-player cello section. By 1975 had risen through the ranks to become leader of the orchestra in a concert at Belle Vue. Stephen made his debut as a soloist with the orchestra performing Lalo’s Cello Concerto at the King’s Hall, Belle Vue. Tom appears to have made his solo appearance performing Bach’s Concerto for two violins in D minor with Martin Milner in December 1975 at the Free Trade Hall. Some years later, Tom and Stephen performed the Brahms Concerto for violin and cello together.
In 1992. Stephen performed the Elgar Cello Concerto with Gorton Phil in July 1992 and Tom was the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in July 1999. More recently, Stephen was the narrator when Gorton Phil performed Blake’s The Snowman in December 2022.
After many years playing professionally together in the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, performing the Brahms ‘Double Concerto’ together has, says Stephen, become “a cyclical event that keeps Steve practising his cello…” and it’s fitting that these two lifelong friends will be performing it together again with Gorton Philharmonic in a concert of works connected by friendship.
