Saturday, 10th May 2025 at 7.30 pm
Alderley Edge Methodist Church
MENDELSSOHN
A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
Overture; Nocturne; Scherzo
MOZART
Bassoon Concerto
Laurence Perkins Bassoon
ELGAR
Romance, Op 62
BRAHMS
Symphony No 1
Conductor:
Xinjie Yang
Mendelssohn composed his Overture to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream when he was only 17 years of age. The rest of the work, written at the request
of the King of Prussia, followed 13 years later. This enchanting work is
amongst Mendelssohn’s most enduring compositions.
The first movement of Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto is written in sonata form and showcases what the bassoon can do; it’s agility and the ability to trill, leap (nearly two octaves in this case),
repeat notes rapid-fire, sing lyrically and sit comfortably on prominent low
notes. Mozart was aware that the bassoon is not the most forward of instruments
so the soloist takes a more subservient role than is usual in a concerto and
does not always articulate key melodies until after they have been introduced
by the orchestra, which develops a lively conversation between soloist and
orchestra. The second movement is a slow and lyrical sonata, which contains a
theme dating back to notes made by an 8 year old Mozart and which later also
featured in the Countess’ aria ‘Porgi, Amor’ at the beginning of the second act of Mozart’s opera, The Marriage of Figaro. The final movement is a minuet, based on a
standard courtly dance rather than a more strenuous ballroom dance.
Elgar’s Romance, Op 62 is a short work for bassoon and orchestra by Edward Elgar dating from 1909–10. It was composed for the principal bassoonist of the London Symphony
Orchestra, Edwin F James, who gave the first performance in February 1911 at
Hereford, with the composer conducting.
Brahms composed his Symphony No 1 in his early 40s. Often regarded as ‘Beethoven’s Tenth’, the intense work is of epic proportions. Conscious that he was following in
Beethoven’s footsteps, Brahms struggled for many years to complete the work. In 1862 his
soul mate and muse Clara Schumann wrote to mutual friend Joseph Joachim: “Johannes sent me the other day—imagine the surprise!—the first movement of a symphony. The movement is full of wonderful beauties,
and the themes are treated with a mastery which is becoming more and more
characteristic of him.” The symphony acquired a grandiloquent introduction and two relatively slender
inner movements—but remained maddeningly, frustratingly incomplete. The obstacle was the finale,
which had to provide a worthy counterbalance to the magnificence of the first
movement. Brahms wasn’t about to attempt the high-wire act of introducing a grand new symphony unless
he was certain he had that elusive concluding movement. It took until 1876, but
he got there. The full gestation of Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68 required
22 years—but it was well worth it,
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Laurence Perkins was born in Lancashire in 1954, and studied at the Royal Northern College of
Music in Manchester between 1970-76 with Charles Cracknell, principal
bassoonist in the Hallé Orchestra.. He joined Manchester Camerata as their principal bassoonist in
October 1974, leaving in June 2017 to pursue more chamber music and solo
playing, alongside his on-going work promoting the bassoon. During his 43 years
with Camerata he performed in concerts throughout the UK (including the BBC
Proms) and on overseas tours including France, Germany, Portugal, Norway, the
Azores Islands, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia and Japan.
Laurence has given many solo concert performances throughout the UK and Europe,
including recitals at the Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room in London,
concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra (at St. John’s, Smith Square) and with Manchester Camerata, and numerous overseas concerts
including France, Portugal and Prague.
Laurence’s solo CDs for the Hyperion label include a disc of concertos with conductor
Douglas Boyd which received a five-star rating in the BBC Music Magazine, with
the Mozart Concerto being a top selection in Building a Library on the BBC Radio 3 Record Review programme. A CD of shorter, lighter pieces The Playful Pachyderm with the New London Orchestra conducted by Ronald Corp received outstanding
reviews in the national and international media.Two of Laurence's recordings
have reached No.4 in the U.K. Specialist Classical Charts - his 2018 recording
of the Richard Strauss Duet-Concertino with trios by Beethoven and Glinka, plus
his 2-CD anthology of 20th century music Voyage of a Sea-god which was also voted "album of the week" in The Times newspaper when it was
released in July 2021.
Laurence is bassoon tutor at the University of York, and has also been bassoon
tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and at Nottingham
and Leeds Universities. He has also been a regular bassoon and chamber music
tutor at many summer schools and courses in the UK and overseas, including
Aberystwyth, Malvern, Sherborne, Dartington, Alston Hall in Lancashire,
Kammermusik in Oxford, and Cubertou in the south of France.