Chester Philharmonic Orchestra

Overture:   Peterloo   Malcolm Arnold

Tuba Concerto:             Ralph Vaughan Williams

Symphonie Fantastique     Berlioz

It was on the 16^th August 1819 that a peaceful crowd of some 80,000 Northern working folk gathered together in St Peter’s Fields Manchester to demand reform of Parliamentary representation. Acting upon the orders of the local Magistrates, a cavalry charge by the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry and the 15^th Hussars killed 18 people and injured approximately 400 others. The name Peterloo is an ironic comparison to the Battle of Waterloo. Malcolm Arnold’s overture portrays these happenings musically, “after a lament for the killed and injured, it ends in triumph, in the firm belief that all those who have suffered and died in the cause of unity amongst mankind, will not have died so in vain.”(Malcolm Arnold)  Ralph Vaughan Williams tuba concerto was composed in 1954 and we will hear it this evening performed by international artist Les Neish. Les has toured the world with his tuba performing in over 60 countries and is Tuba Tutor at the RNCM, Salford University and Birmingham Conservatoire. Classical Music Magazine writes, “Proof that the tuba, the comedian of the orchestra, is a credible solo instrument abounds in the brilliance of Neish” Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique is, Like the Peterloo Overture programmatic in that it depicts a story in five different scenes. This story is one of unrequited love. “The Artist” (Berlioz himself) falls in love but is unable to confess his love to the object of his desire. Everywhere he looks he sees visions of his loved one. He is an opium addict and in consequence poisons himself with an overdose resulting in hallucinations. The two final scenes, March to the Scaffold and Witches Dance, depict this and as Bernstein said, “Berlioz tells it like it is. You take a trip, you wind up screaming at your own funeral”.