“Great things come to those who look after the little things…”

Supported by the William Alwyn Foundation - Website

The Surrey Mozart Players are delighted to present a concert of beautiful orchestral music for a February Sunday afternoon in the intimate surroundings of the Electric Theatre.

This programme features four great works in small packages. A pair of works for solo harp and strings - Debussy’s beguiling Danse sacrée et danse profane came out of two mundane requests, for a test piece for the Brussels Academy and for a promotional piece to show off the new Pleyel harp mechanism. You would never imagine such incredible music could result from such a double-edged chore. William Alwyn, famous for his monumental symphonies and film scores, valued his Lyra Angelica (actually another concerto for harp and strings) above almost everything else he composed, and with good reason; this is truly heavenly and beguiling music. Four movements each illustrate just one line of poetry, but to stunning effect - this a true neglected gem of English pastoral music.

Framing these two solo works featuring harp soloist Cecilia De Maria, we have Mozart’s charming and characterful set of miniature dances, Les petits riens written for a now long forgotten ballet and Haydn’s jewel of a symphony built around his famous depiction of a carriage clock.

Programme

Mozart – Les Petits Riens
William Alwyn – Harp Concerto ‘Lyra Angelica’
Debussy – Danses sacrée et profane
Haydn – Symphony No. 101 ‘The Clock’

Performers

Harp soloist: Cecilia De Maria
Conductor: Philip Ellis
Leader: Annmarie McDade
Surrey Mozart Players

Photographer: Katinka Herbert