There is a rare chance to enjoy an orchestral performance of a work originally written for the brass band medium this evening (Tuesday 24th November — BBC Radio 3: 7.30pm).
'Sadly Now the Throstle Sings' by Gavin Higgins will be performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of American conductor Ryan Bancroft on the 'Radio 3 in Concert' broadcast.
It will be featured in a Maida Vale studio recorded programme made last month alongside 'Sound and Fury' by Anna Clyne, Magnus Lindberg's 'Ottoni', 'Poems chinois for Choir and Piano' by Philippe Hersant and Ravel's 'Ma mere l'oye'.
Philip Cobb
The new realisation for brass ensemble and percussion will feature the solo flugel horn lead played by Philip Cobb.
Speaking to 4BR Gavin said: "I did the new realisation a couple of moths ago and I'm delighted with the performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra led with such understanding by Ryan Bancroft and stunningly played by Philip Cobb as the wonderful lead."
Sad lament
Originally commissioned by the Richard Thomas Foundation in 2012 as a fanfare, the title comes from the Oscar Wilde poem, 'From Spring days to Winter'.
It was described as "…a sad lament to fragile passions, captured with a sense of the writer's increasingly darkening persona and growing personal bleakness……a beautiful evocation of melancholia"
But now with snow the tree is grey
Ah, sadly now the throstle sings!
My love is dead; ah! Well a day,
See at her silent feet I lay
A dove with broken wings!
Ah, Love! ah, Love!
That thou wert slain
Fond Dove, fond Dove return again.
Listen:
It received its brass band premiere performed by Tredegar Band conducted by Ian Porthouse at the 2010 RNCM Brass Band Festival and incorporated as the second movement of the composer's critically acclaimed ballet score 'Dark Arteries'.
