ENGLISH MASTERWORKS

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8 AT 3:00PM

GOUCHER COLLEGE'S KRAUSHAAR AUDITORIUM

Robert Moody, conductor

Audrey Wright, violin

P. MAXWELL DAVIES – An Orkney Wedding at Sunrise

R. V. WILLIAMS – The Lark Ascending

G. Holst – The Planets (arr. Stephenson)

Intimate and immense soundscapes collide in this evocative program of British orchestral treasures. Peter Maxwell Davies’ An Orkney Wedding, With Sunrise is a raucous, windswept celebration of Scottish tradition, complete with folk tunes, whisky-fueled revelry, and a breathtaking finale featuring a live bagpiper ushering in the dawn.

A serene morning takes flight with Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending performed by violinist, and BCO Concertmaster, Audrey Wright. This exquisite pastoral reverie captures the quiet beauty of the English countryside and the delicate, boundless freedom of a bird in flight.

James Stephenson’s arrangement of Holst’s The Planets for chamber orchestra retains the tour-de-force nature of the composer’s original masterpiece that takes audiences on a cosmic journey through the grandeur and mystery of the solar system. From Mars‘ relentless battlecry and the majestic joy of Jupiter’s hymn, to the ethereal emptiness of Neptune, this is orchestral storytelling on an epic scale.