Alison Bellerby
Author's posts
"Orchestra take a concert bow"
Herts Advertiser critic John Manning was impressed by SASO’s summer concert, featuring Mahler’s monumental 5th Symphony. Members of St Albans Symphony Orchestra can feel justifiably feel pride at their overall level of performance at their concert in St Saviour’s Church on Saturday. With cellist Michael Wigram, their programme contained just two works, Saint-Saen’s Cello Concerto No …
SASO summer concert mixes romance with passion, tragedy and loss
St Albans Symphony Orchestra (SASO) promise a heady mixture of passion, joy and tragic loss at their summer concert – combining the romantic Cello Concerto No 1 by Camille Saint Saens with the searing intensity of Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. (7.30pm, Saturday 25th June, St Saviour’s Church, Sandpit Lane, St Albans AL1 4DF.) Both works …
‘Elgar workshop results in topnotch playing’ says critic
SASO’s performance of Elgar’s Symphony No 2 at the conclusion of its 2016 Babs Yule memorial workshop weekend was ‘impressive’ according to Herts Advertiser music critic, John Manning. Anyone hearing Elgar’s second symphony for the first time might be forgiven for not recognising it as the work of the great composer. For, in its overall style, …
SASO plan to take audience on Elgar’s “passionate pilgrimage”
St Albans Symphony Orchestra (SASO) plans to transport its audience on a musical rollercoaster from exuberant joy to heartfelt grief when it performs Sir Edward Elgar’s Second Symphony in St Saviour’s Church, Sandpit Lane on Saturday May 14th (7.30pm : pre-concert talk at 7pm). First performed in 1911, the symphony is dedicated to the memory …
Tom Hammond to conduct SASO from 2016-17
St Albans Symphony Orchestra (SASO) is delighted to announce the appointment of Tom Hammond as its new Principal Conductor. Tom succeeds Bjorn Bantock, who left last summer after five years in charge. He will starting working with the orchestra on a regular basis in the autumn. He was chosen from more than 40 applicants for …
Elgar Symphony No 2: workshop invitation to string players for 13th/14th May 2016
WEEKEND ORCHESTRAL WORKSHOP 2016 In memory of Babs Yule (1920-2010) Friday 13th May (7.30 to 10pm) & Saturday 14th May (10.30am to 8.30pm, including concert performance) at Townsend School, High Oaks, St Albans, AL3 6DR and St Saviour’s Church, Sandpit Lane, St Albans AL1 4DT SIR EDWARD ELGAR: SYMPHONY NO 2 IN E-FLAT MAJOR String players of a high standard …
Critics praises “dazzling” Mendelssohn concerto
John Manning, music critic for the Herts Advertiser, was impressed by rising violin start Cristian Grajner de Sa playing Mendelssohn’s Concerto on March 5th – and by SASO’s playing under guest conductor Leon Gee in Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. “Although Cristian Grajner De Sa is still an undergraduate he dazzled his audience …
‘Cristian dazzles as SASO as conductor shows the way’
John Manning, music critic for the Herts Advertiser, was impressed in March by rising violin start Cristian Grajner de Sa – and by SASO’s playing under guest conductor Leon Gee “Although Cristian Grajner De Sa is still an undergraduate he dazzled his audience ill St Albans on Saturday with his performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. …
Rising violin star to play Mendelssohn concerto at SASO’s March concert
One of Britain’s rising violin stars will play the hugely popular Mendelssohn Violin Concerto when St Albans Symphony Orchestra (SASO) performs its early spring concert on Saturday March 5th (7.30pm, St Saviour’s Church, Sandpit Lane, AL1 4DT). Although only 21 years old, and still a third-year student at the Royal Academy of Music, Cristian Grajner de Sa …
SASO’s New Year 2016 concert “a huge success”, declares critic
SASO’s New Year Concert for 2016 was “a huge success” according to John Manning, music critic of the Herts Advertiser. His review notes that: “From the start with Saint-Saens’ rousing Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah it was obvious that the orchestra was on form and working well with its guest. And the good work continued with Mascagni’s …
