Music for 
St.Valentine

Quotations from  Shakespeare's  Romeo and Juliet  read by  Mike Burnside >>>>>>>

..... sadly not quite as good looking as the couple above!!

Music from  Prokoviev's Romeo and Juliet  conducted by  Robin Smith <<<<<<

Surrey Brass, the innovative and entertaining brass ensemble, present a matinee concert "Music for St. Valentine" at 3:30pm on Sunday 15th Feb at St James', St. James Road, Church, Hampton Hill.

The programme features the most ambitious musical programme yet from Surrey Brass, highlighting a performance of the utterly ravishing music from Prokoviev's "Romeo and Juliet" ballet. 

To bring the music to life, Mike Burnside, the celebrated Shakespearian actor and director will be providing readings from the famous play between the music. 

Last year Mike directed the play at the prestigious Titchfield Festival in Hampshire - and one reviewer said "it's the best 'Romeo' scene I've seen". It is reputed that "Love's Labours' Lost" was first performed in the town, perhaps because Shakespeare himself stayed there with is patron the Earl of Southampton - and indeed Titchfield may have been where Romeo and Juliet was first performed!

Also on the programme is the ever popular "Finlandia", and the charismatic and quintessentially English "Capriol Suite", together with other music that you are unlikely to have heard before, but are guaranteed to enjoy. As usual, you can expect the unexpected in the programme, and have plenty of time to go out for that romantic dinner after the show!

Surrey Brass will be directed by top London trumpet player, Robin Smith, who is well known in the area from teaching and family links. The group are building a large and enthusiastic audience in the area following their popular "British Brass" concert at St James' in 2003, and their Christmas concert at the Landmark Arts Centre which was completely sold out.

Programme

Note: Although we anticipate to play the listed music, the musical programme may be subject to change. 
Expect unprogrammed additions for your enjoyment!

Venue Information

St James has excellent facilities for the disabled, including easy wheelchair access, toilet and parking facilities. 

    Obtain a map and directions by clicking the button.

Click the button for Train information.   Click the button for Bus information.

Parking

Limited parking for a small number of cars is available on site, including spaces for the disabled. 
Additional free parking is available on the street directly outside and opposite the church.

Reviews

Read previous reviews or send your own review of this concert for inclusion here!

(article appearing in the Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Love at First Sight

Surrey Brass, under the musical directorship of Robin Smith, presented Music for Valentine's on Sunday 15th February at St James' Church, Hampton Hill.

Their programme began with Copland's 'Ceremonial Fanfare' which offered no refuge for any section of this talented ensemble, from the opening exposed solo trumpet line right through to the full force of the fanfare climax and the exposed finale.

After Warlocks quintessentially English 'Capriol Suite' we were treated to 'Hymn to Humanity', where the power of the ensemble was demonstrated to its full potential. If we then needed some emotional relief we found it in Chris Hazell's 'Kraken', written to portray one of his adopted cats where we could almost see Kraken strutting his stuff down the alley through Hazell's clever blues rhythms and harmonies, brought to life through some sensitive musical interpretation.

The first half ended with Sibelius' 'Finlandia' arranged for brass by William Spencer, the ensemble's principal trumpet. The acoustic of St James' was ideal to exploit Sibelius's open harmonies and Surrey Brass' rich sound and the power of their final chorale may well have blown some snow off the pine trees over in Helsinki.

The second half featured a single work, Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, a fiendishly difficult arrangement of the ballet music for brass ensemble by Paul Archibald. You will have to search carefully to find scoring requiring two tubas but here we had it, together with an extensive percussion section. This was scoring that required the ultimate in precision playing and we were not disappointed. If we heard the odd technical slip it was outweighed by this musically sensitive interpretation capped by some sublime high trumpet playing. A unique feature of the performance was the added bonus of carefully chosen extracts from Shakespeare's play read between movements by Mike Burnside, the celebrated Shakespearian actor and director, whose electrifying performance made this an unforgettable occasion.

The audience demanded more and Surrey Brass responded with an encore. Allan Botschinsky's 'Interlude Number 4' brought a complete change of style to West Coast lazy session music, more at home in Ronnie Scott's than St James's church. The versatility of the ensemble was illustrated to its full here with John Goodwin's smokey flugal horn improvisation and an equally nimble tuba solo from Iain MacDonald.

The whole afternoon was a musical treat for young and old alike from an accomplished ensemble that truly lived up to their motto of 'innovative and entertaining performance'.

Surrey Brass's next concert is a concert of film music at Walton Playhouse on March 21st., celebrating silent films made in Walton in 1910 by Cecil Hepworth, which are accompanied by new music written by New Malden composer John Hughes. The programme also includes music from recent blockbuster films including 'Star Wars'. Don't miss it. Details at surreybrass.co.uk

Steven Bishop

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