Vienna takes centre stage for new musical season
Tonbridge School’s musical festival season this autumn focuses on the city many consider to be the musical capital of the world – Vienna.
There are five concerts in total, taking place between September and November, with the theme of Vienna: Tradition and Innovation.
The opening concert of the series on 15 September includes the late-Romantic masterpiece of the Second Viennese School, Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht. There will be a full performance with members of Kokoro, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Ensemble, a group with which Mark Forkgen, the school’s Director of Music, has just celebrated twenty years as Principal Conductor. This is a ‘discovery concert’, in which Mark will be talking about the piece before it is performed.
The concert on 3 November sees staff and students from Tonbridge School performing Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, which sets 20 poems by Wilhelm Müller to voice and piano.
Viennese Chamber Music follows on 10 November, featuring sonatas, duets, trios, quartets and quintets by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as violin flights of fancy from Kreisler and contrasting pieces from Schönberg, Berg and Webern.
The fourth in the series is Festival Eucharist, performed by Tonbridge School’s Chapel Choir, String Ensemble and soloists. Taking place in the Chapel of St Augustine, the service will recreate the grandeur of Viennese worship and features Mozart’s Mass in F.
Tonbridge School Symphony Orchestra takes to the stage for A Viennese Symphony, the series finale on 22 November, combining movements by Haydn, Mahler, Bruckner and Mozart.
Entry is free, but advance booking is requested via www.emftheatre.com or by emailing boxoffice@tonbridge-school.org
Vienna: Tradition and Innovation.
Sunday 15 September: Allan Bunney Concert. 8.15pm, Big School.
Sunday 3 November: A Song Cycle. 8.15pm, Recital Room.
Sunday 10 November: Piano and Chamber Music. 3.30pm, Big School.
Sunday 17 November: Festival Eucharist. 7.15pm, Chapel.
Friday 22 November: A Viennese Symphony. 7.30pm, Chapel.
