Strauss - Serenade for wind in Eb op.7
Beethoven - Piano Concerto no.2 in Bb
Mendelssohn - Intermezzo and Nocturne from Midsummer Night's Dream
Mozart - Symphony 25 in G minor
Piano: Martin Roscoe
Conductor: Simon Wright
Leader: Fiona Love
The visit to Helmsley will see the YGO perform an intimate chamber concert, using a small group of players from the full orchestra. The soloist in the Beethoven will be the wonderful Rebecca Taylor - an old friend of the orchestra and well known to the audience of Helmsley. Bookending the concerto will be a wind serenade by Richard Strauss performed by the orchestra's superlative wind section, and the evocative Intermezzo and Nocturne from Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream. To close the concert, there will be a performance of Mozart's Symphony No. 25
With an extraordinary career spanning over five decades, Martin Roscoe is unarguably one of the UK’s best loved pianists. Renowned for his versatility at the keyboard, Martin is equally at home in concerto, recital and chamber performances.
His enduring popularity and the respect in which he is universally held are built on a deeply thoughtful musicianship and his easy rapport with audiences and fellow musicians alike. Martin is Artistic Director of Ribble Valley International Piano Week and the Manchester Chamber Concerts Society, and has recently stepped down as Co-Artistic Director of the Beverley Chamber Music Festival.
With a repertoire of over 100 concertos performed or recorded, Martin continues to work regularly with many of the UK’s leading orchestras, having especially close links with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Northern Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, where he has given over ninety performances.
Other orchestral highlights have included BBC Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Martin also performs widely across Europe, Canada, Australia and the Far East, sharing the concert platform with eminent conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Mark Elder, Gianandrea Noseda, and Christoph von Dohnányi.
A prolific recitalist and chamber musician, Martin tours the UK extensively every season, including regular appearances at Wigmore Hall, Kings Place and Bridgewater Hall. He has long-standing associations with Peter Donohoe, Kathryn Stott, and the Maggini Quartet, and worked closely with Tasmin Little and the Endellion String Quartet during their long and illustrious careers. Recent collaborations include with Jennifer Pike, Tai Murray, Fenella Humphreys, Liza Ferschtman and the Brodsky and Carducci Quartets.
One of his most important ensembles, the Cropper Welsh Roscoe Trio (2005-2016), performed many times across the UK, most notably at Wigmore Hall. More recently, Martin formed the Roscoe Piano Trio with Fenella Humphreys and Jessica Burroughs for a celebratory concert in honour of Peter Cropper. The Trio has since gone on to perform across the UK, most notably at Bridgewater Hall.
Having made over 600 broadcasts, including seven BBC Prom appearances, Martin is one of the most regularly played pianists on BBC Radio 3. Martin has also made many commercial recordings for labels such as Hyperion, Chandos and Naxos. He has recorded the complete piano music of Dohnányi ,Nielsen and Szymanowski, as well as four discs in the Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto series. For the Deux-Elles label, Martin has recorded the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, for which he received unanimous critical acclaim.
Teaching has always formed an important part of Martin’s life and the development of young talent helps him to constantly re-examine and re-evaluate his own playing. He is currently Professor of Piano at the Guildhall School of Music in London and has been awarded his Fellowship there.
Martin splits his free time between the stunning English Lake District and the Scottish Highlands, which provide inspiration and relaxation, and also enable him to indulge his passion for the countryside and hill-walking.
https://www.martinroscoe.co.uk/
York Guildhall Orchestra
Following its founding in 1980 to explore the repertoire of the nineteenth and early twentieth century symphonic music, the York Guildhall Orchestra has become a well-established and popular element in the cultural life of York and the surrounding area, establishing itself as one of the best amateur orchestras in the region. Simon Wright, Musical Director of the orchestra since 1992, has worked hard over the years to hone the orchestra sound; he continues to inspire the York Guildhall Orchestra in achieving its high standards of playing.
The orchestra’s main purpose is to perform concerts of an increasingly high standard in both York Barbican and elsewhere. The programmes performed are wide ranging from the traditional symphonic repertoire, through to light concerts of film music and events for young persons, some featuring world premieres and works composed especially for the orchestra. Where possible, concerts will include leading soloists of national and international renown. Previous performers have included Alexander Baillie, Sarah Beth Briggs, Lynne Dawson, Peter Donohoe, Rodney Friend, Evelyn Glennie, Stephen Isserlis, Emma Johnson, Tasmin Little, Leon McCawley, Jagdish Mistry, Martin Roscoe, Alessandro Taverna, Julian Lloyd Weber and Willard White to name but a few.
The orchestra has featured in events such as Music by Moonlight at Fountains Abbey and has appeared on Radio 3. The Orchestra released its first CD entitled Ring Dance in October 2004.
The orchestra members are mixed – some are semi-professional musicians, but most are competent amateurs. All love playing large scale symphonic works from the late 19th and 20th century repertoire. Several works have been commissioned for the orchestra, and we have had the privilege of performing several world and UK premières.
The orchestra works hard to promote music and orchestral playing amongst the young musicians of York with its outreach work in combination with the York Music Hub. This includes allowing talented youngsters to play with the orchestra during its rehearsals and the setting up of workshop events.
Music Director - Simon Wright
As a conductor Simon Wright has earned universal respect and acclaim for his interpretations of wide-ranging and of challenging orchestral and choral repertoire. Throughout his professional career, which has also embraced roles as organist, accompanist, arranger and teacher, he has become established as a musician of enormous integrity, winning the admiration of musicians, audiences and critics alike.
Born in Sunderland, Simon was educated at Chetham’s School, Manchester and at the Royal Manchester College of Music. A regular accompanist of the Hallé Choir, often working with Sir John Barbirolli, he won, at the age of 16, a scholarship to the Royal Manchester College. In the UK, Simon has conducted many British orchestras including the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, English Northern Philharmonia, English Chamber Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia and Manchester Camerata. He has also conducted student orchestras at the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music in London and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.
A prize-winner in the 1986 Leeds Conducting Competition, Simon has been Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the Leeds Festival Chorus since 1975 and Musical Director and Principal Conductor of the York Guildhall Orchestra since 1992.
He is deeply committed to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries and has conducted many orchestral and choral premières, including Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Canticum Canticorum and Dominic Muldowney’s The Fall of Jerusalem, both with the Leeds Festival Chorus and the BBC Philharmonic, David Gow’s Marimba Concerto with Evelyn Glennie and the York Guildhall Orchestra, Michael Stimpson’s Clouds of War with the Tallis Chamber Choir and English Chamber Orchestra and, most recently, David Matthews’ Fanfares and Flowers with the Trinity College of Music Wind Orchestra, Geoffrey Kinder’s The Bells of London Town with the Leeds Festival Chorus and Judith Bingham’s Shakespeare Requiem with the Leeds Festival Chorus and the BBC Philharmonic. Simon has toured extensively within Europe, and made his American début in New York in 1986.
Recordings, both as conductor and keyboard player, with John Wallace OBE, the Wallace Collection and with the Philharmonia form a major part of his discography which includes recordings on the EMI, Nimbus, Collins Classics, GMN and IMP Masters labels. In 2003 he made his début with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducting a recording of British trumpet concertos with John Wallace, a recording which was released on the Sanctuary Classics label in January 2006. In January 2006, Simon made his début with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus recording Elgar’s Music Makers and Sea Pictures with Sarah Connolly for Naxos. This recording was released in December 2006 and was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award.
Recent among his European engagements have been recordings and concerts with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Bremen and the Philharmonie und Kammerphilharmonie des Mitteldeutschen Rundfunks Leipzig. Recent engagements have also taken him to the USA, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Spain as well as to the Caribbean with the English Chamber Orchestra, Viktoria Mullova and Mischa Maisky and to Oman. For four years he conducted the English Chamber Orchestra at the Classical Brit Awards and broadcast on national television, working with Plácido Domingo, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Renée Fleming, Bryn Terfel, Andrea Bocelli and Sir James Galway.
In April 2007 Simon made his début with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a televised concert from the Royal Albert Hall; he returned to conduct the orchestra again in December that year. In December 2007 he also made his début with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and in April 2008 he conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the first time. In December 2010 he made his début with the Ulster Orchestra – and in October 2011, he travelled to South Africa for the first time to conduct the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra in three concerts. Future engagements include concerts with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
In July 2018 Simon was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of York St John University.