Sat 10th March 2018, 7:30pm
St Saviour’s Church
Sandpit Lane
St Albans
AL1 4DF
Conductor: Tom Hammond
Vaughan Williams: Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus
Dvořák: Serenade for Winds
Dvořák: Symphony No.7
Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus is a work for harp and string orchestra, based on a folk tune. Vaughan Williams composed the work on commission from the British Council to be played at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City.
Dvořák’s Serenade for Winds evokes the atmosphere of the musical performances in Baroque castles, where the worlds of the aristocracy and the common folk merged. His Symphony No.7 is characteristic for its dramatic expression and sombre atmosphere of uncertainty and defiance. It is a profoundly intimate work where the composer ponders the meanderings of his soul and the answers to elementary issues of human existence.