The opening concert of the 2017 Autumn Series features our resident ensembles, the Brandenburg Festival Chorus and Brandenburg Sinfonia, in a programme of marvellous Mozart. In the second half, the festival’s Associate Conductor, Edward Reeve, leads both groups in the dramatic Requiem, while in the first the instrumentalists will take centre stage with the Adagio and Fugue in C minor, Divertimento from The Marriage of Figaro, and the Serenade in D major, known as Serenata Notturna.
Programme
(All compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K. 546
Divertimento, K. 492, from The Marriage of Figaro
Serenade no. 6 in D major. K. 239, 'Serenata Notturna'
Interval
Requiem in D minor, K. 626
Brandenburg Singers
Brandenburg Sinfonia
Conductor — Edward Reeve
Tickets £33 (Premium) £29 £25 £22 £16 £9 — available from the St Martin's box office — call 020 7766 1100, or book online.
A combined ticket for both of this evening's concerts is available, which offers a 25% discount — please call the St Martin's box office for availability.
The premium seats at St Martin's are front, central, and include a cushion.
Brandenburg Sinfonia
The Brandenburg Sinfonia is one of the most dynamically versatile musical organisations in the country. It is renowned for its special quality of sound and poised vivacity in performance. The orchestra performs regularly in the majority of the major venues across the country and in London at the Barbican Halls, Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Fairfield Halls and St John’s Smith Square. Its repertoire ranges from Bach to Lloyd Webber and its members give over one hundred performances of orchestral, chamber choral and operatic music during the year.
As well as its renowned work in the UK, the Brandenburg Sinfonia is also in great demand abroad, and has in recent years visited France, USA, Bermuda, the Channel Islands, Barbados, Cyprus, Malta and St Petersburg. The varied range of activities undertaken by the orchestra include a major concert series at St Martin-in-the- Fields and a major Classical Music cruise on the QE2. One of the recent highlights was an International Opera Gala conducted by Richard Bonynge in the presence of HRH Prince Charles.
A large number of artists of international standing have worked with the orchestra including Richard Bonynge, Yvonne Kenny, Emmanuel Hurwitz, Lesley Garrett, John Georgiadis, John Wallace, Emma Kirkby, James Bowman and Gordon Hunt.
The Brandenburg Sinfonia is delighted to perform at the Thaxted Festival as resident orchestra. The orchestras for a number of touring companies are formed from members of the Brandenburg Sinfonia including Central Festival Opera, First Act Opera, London City Opera, and English Pocket Opera.
Brandenburg Singers
The Brandenburg Singers is a group of talented choral performers, brought together to perform both popular and less well-known repertoire. The singers are drawn from some of the best chamber choirs that regularly take part in the Brandenburg Choral Festival’s Spring Series and Autumn Series.
Edward Reeve
Edward Reeve is twenty-one years old and has been playing the piano since the age of seven, completing his Diploma of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music when he was fourteen. He gained the Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music at the end of 2011 with distinction, achieving the same qualification on the organ in July 2014. Edward is a past recipient of the Sheila Mossman Award, and was twice successful in completing the Regional Auditions for the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition.
Edward has been fortunate to have had the opportunity to perform piano and organ concertos with a number of orchestras, including works by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Poulenc, Saint-Saëns, Rachmaninoff, Grieg, Bach, Gershwin and Guilmant. Edward has also given recital performances of both Book I and Book II of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier and the complete Keyboard Partitas, and is looking forward to performing the English Suites next January. Other forthcoming performances include Beethoven's Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos.
Recent conducting experience includes conducting Mendelssohn's Elijah and Lobgesang (Symphony No. 2), Mozart's Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte, Requiem, Coronation Mass, Solemn Vespers and the 'Great' Mass in C minor, Schubert's Mass in G, Handel's Jephtha (in a fully-staged production), Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and La Serva Padrona, Parry's Songs of Farewell, Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Blow's Venus and Adonis, Offenbach's Daphnis and Chloe, Howells' Requiem and Salieri's Prima la musica e poi le parole.
Edward has been Assistant Musical Director for Cambridge productions of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress and Charpentier's La descente d’Orfée aux enfers. Edward was recently appointed as the Associate Conductor for the Brandenburg Choral Festival of London, for which he has conducted Mozart's Requiem and Haydn's The Creation at St Martin-in-the-Fields. In April 2017, Edward directed his own festival — the Cambridge Brahms Festival — featuring a series of concerts across the city, with visiting speakers and over a hundred performers, featuring both popular works and rarities, and finishing with a performance of the Second Piano Concerto. Upcoming conducting projects include Mozart's Requiem, Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Purcell's Hail, Bright Cecilia and Come Ye Sons of Art, and playing continuo for Bach's Mass in B minor and Handel's Acis and Galatea.
Edward spent his gap year as Organ Scholar at Salisbury Cathedral, where he recorded sixteen discs of organ music on the Cathedral organ, and is now in his third year reading Music at Queens’ College, Cambridge, as Senior Organ Scholar. Recent organ recital venues include Salisbury Cathedral, St. Paul's Cathedral, Reading Town Hall and King's College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he is also the King's Voices Organ Scholar, harpsichordist for the Collegium Musicum, and for two years held an Instrumental Award. This summer Edward was awarded a bursary to attend the Dartington Summer School, specialising in Baroque opera, harpsichord and fortepiano. In addition to his keyboard playing and conducting, Edward plays 'cello, natural horn and sings. In October 2016, Edward was the Assistant Musical Director for the Cambridge Greek Play, which featured a double bill of Antigone and Lysistrata.