English Music for Strings
Thursday, July 14 at 7:30pm
Koerner Hall
Parker String Quartet
Nicholas Phan, tenor
Neil Deland, french horn
Joseph Swensen, conductor
TSM Festival Strings

Gustav Holst: St. Paul's Suite for Strings, Op. 29, No. 2, H. 118
Benjamin Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31
Michael Tippett: Concerto for Double String Orchestra
Edward Elgar: Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47

An invigorating and lush program centred on the string orchestra launches the Festival in hearty style. British composers have worked in this exceptionally rich and flexible medium from the seventeenth century through to our own time, building an exceptional repertoire in the process. Benjamin Britten’s haunting Serenade sets poems on the subject of night by renowned British poets spanning five centuries, memorably coloured by the eloquent sound of a solo french horn. Sir Edward Elgar composed the stirring, fully and intricately textured showpiece, Introduction and Allegro, for the newly-founded London Symphony Orchestra. One of its themes was inspired by the sounds of distant voices singing across the hills and valleys of the Welsh countryside.