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Saints march in with a few surprises up their sleeve...

Christopher Morley previews a busy few weeks ahead on the classical scene, including an enterprising mix of the known and not-so-known from the Orchestra of St John

Benjamin Frith(Image: Chris Nottingham)

With springtime bringing longer daylight to our evenings city residents might feel tempted to venture out into the region to sample the musical events on offer.

The enterprising Orchestra of St John, based in Bromsgrove’s Parish Church of that name, and its specially-assembled Choir are currently tuning up for a generous concert there next Saturday, April 29 (7.30pm).

Pianist Benjamin Frith will be particularly busy, playing as soloist in Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto as well in two rarely heard works for piano, orchestra and choir.

Constant Lambert’s The Rio Grande, with its art deco text by Sacheverell Sitwell, is infectiously jazzy (it was composed in 1927) and demands a colourful percussion section. It is paired with Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, one of that composer’s wildest and most visionary works.

When I conducted the piece as a music undergraduate at the University of Birmingham in the late 1960s we students had a wonderful time rehearsing and performing it.

Raphael Wallfisch.

It begins with what was originally a lengthy piano improvisation (Beethoven himself at the premiere), before the orchestra gradually creeps in, introducing a set of variations on a simple theme which all listeners will recognise as an early version of the “Ode to Joy”.

And then, just as in the looming Ninth Symphony, vocal soloists and chorus crown the proceedings, singing an idealistic text (apparently Beethoven’s own) extolling the unifying power of music.

Its premiere broke down, thanks to under-rehearsal and deterioration of relations between the composer and his performers.