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The Watford Observer - Friday, May 9th 2003

Crowds gather for spring concert

Watford Philharmonic's spring concert on Saturday was held, as is customary, in the hall of the Watford Girls' Grammar School and attracted a large audience.

The evening was warm and the lights necessary to illuminate the players' scores added to the heat and I fear caused physical discomfort to audience and players alike.  However, under the impeccable leadership of Rebecca Boyle and the baton of Stuart Dunlop, the orchestra gave their best.

The concert opened with Beethoven's Leonora No. 3.  As it happens I had heard this the week previously at the Barbican, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.  Although sadly and inevitably the sheer string tone of the Watford players could not match the London musicians, the overall effect was equally dramatic, the off-stage trumpet call had us on the edge of our seats hoping the minister would arrive in time.

What a splendid work this is.

Although possibly the slightest work of the evening, Richard Strauss's Concerto No. 1 for Horn was, I suspect, what most of us were looking forward to.

The soloist was 20-year old Tim Thorpe, a local boy, a product of Cassiobury Juinior School, Watford Grammar School and the Purcell School and now studying at the Guildhall School of Music.  He hopes to become a professional horn player working with one of the leading symphony orchestras.  Having already mentioned the London concert, the principal horn of the LSO, David Pyatt, is also from Watford so perhaps this augurs well for Tim.  I hope so.

As for the concerto, bearing in mind the composer was only two years younger than the soloist at the time it was written, this composition showed no great originality but was pleasant to listen to.

Not everyone can be a Mozart at the age of 18 but the exuberant style of the horn playing was reminiscent of Mozart's concertos for the instrument.  As the informative programme notes stated, "the Strauss of Don Juan and Rosenkavalier is still in the future".

Tim received a well-deserved rousing ovation and it was good to see many young people in the audience who showed their appreciation, as did the orchestra.

After the interval the sole work was Beethoven's Symphony No. 5.  Another good old war-horse we all think we know well - or do we?

There are many internal subtleties in the orchestration and not always obvious on hearing a favourite CD.  Actually I did hear one or two notes possibly not in the score but this was live music-making with all that it entails, played with verve and aplomb.

In the 3rd movement the cellos and basses galumphed menacingly and the transition to the finale well handled, possibly inspired by the example of the soloist the horns sung out joyously as did all the brass and woodwind, particularly the bassoon.

All sections deserved their applause at the end of the evening.  Their next concert including the choir, performing Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, will be on Wednesday, June 11, at the Watford Colosseum.

by Wendy Keeling-Taylor

Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949)

Concerto No. 1 in E flat for horn and orchestra Op. 11

Soloist: Tim Thorpe

Allegro - Andante - Rondo: Allegro

Richard Strauss was born into a musical family in Munich. His father was one of the finest horn players of his day and played first horn in the first performances of many of Wagner’s operas. His tastes however were very conservative; he thoroughly disliked Wagner’s music and hadn’t much use for Brahms either.

Richard was something of a prodigy. He started the piano at 3 and the violin at 8. At 6 he was already composing and had lessons in composition from the age of 11. His early compositions were mostly piano pieces, songs and chamber music for home consumption, but when he was 17 he joined the amateur orchestra which his father directed and this opened the way for writing for orchestra.

This concerto was one of the earliest fruits of this, written when he was 18 and first performed in 1883, not by his father but by another distinguished player to whom it was dedicated, no doubt with the intention of getting it known more widely. It is in three movements played without a break. It has an attractive exuberance and is in a style that his father would have approved. The Strauss of ‘Don Juan’ or ‘Rosenkavalier’ is still in the future.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)

Symphony No. 5 in C minor Op. 67

Allegro con brio - Andante con moto - Allegro leading to Finale: Allegro

Beethoven’s fifth symphony is so familiar to audiences today that it is difficult to realise the impact it had on his contemporaries. Goethe said: “How big it is – quite wild! Enough to bring the house about one’s ears.” After hearing it for the first time Berlioz’s teacher, Lesueur said: “It has so upset and bewildered me that when I wanted to put on my hat I couldn’t find my head,” and later, on reflection, “Music like that ought not to be written.”

It was written about the same time as the Leonora overture. It was Beethoven himself who said of the opening “So Fate knocks at the door.” Earlier he had written to a friend, “I will take Fate by the throat; it shall not wholly overcome me” – which describes the character of the first movement. The second movement is in outline variations on two alternating themes. The third is a ghostly scherzo in which the rhythmic motif of the first movement also plays a prominent part.

The Trio section in the major provides some relief of tension and is introduced by the ‘elephantine gambols’ of the cellos and basses (Berlioz’s description). Originally Beethoven intended this movement to be self-contained within the trio coming round twice as he had just done in the 4th symphony, but he decided instead to join it onto the finale which is triumphant in C major (except for a haunting recollection of the scherzo). Piccolo, contra-bassoon and trombones make their first appearance, indeed for the trombones their first appearance in any symphony.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)

Overture: Leonora No. 3

Beethoven wrote only one opera, but he wrote four separate overtures for it. At its original production in 1805 it was called ‘Leonora’ but the revised version of nine years later was renamed ‘Fidelio’. Tonight’s overture, confusingly was the second to be written but Beethoven realised that it was so powerful and dramatic that it pre-empted the drama of the opera. So eventually he wrote a completely new overture, ‘Fidelio’, which does not anticipate what is to follow on stage.

The opera tells of Florestan, a Spanish nobleman imprisoned in a castle for his political opinions by his enemy Pizzaro. Florestan’s wife, Leonora, dresses up as a boy (Fidelio) and gets employment in the castle. She is just in time to prevent Pizzaro murdering her husband. The slow music of the opening is that of Florestan in his dungeon. The dramatic trumpet calls also appear in the opera where they are the signal of the approach of the Minister who will bring rescue and release.

Too powerful for its original purpose the overture has an established place in the concert hall alongside Beethoven’s finest works.

by Roddy Williams

Watford Philharmonic Preview

If you don’t know the name “Tim Thorpe” already, read on. He tells us you’ll be hearing about him soon enough!

The young local talent will return to Watford on Saturday 3rd May to give his rendition of Richard Strauss’ Horn Concerto No.1 with the Watford Philharmonic Society’s orchestra. Since studying at Watford’s Boys’ Grammar School and Purcell School, Tim has progressed to the famous Guildhall School for Music and Drama in the heart of London and his return to perform locally is sure to be a popular occasion.

Either side of this exciting prospect, the orchestra will also perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 which provides arguably the most well known opening to any classical music and, by the same composer, the Leonora Overture, No. 3. This was intended as the opening for Beethoven’s only opera (Fidelio) but which proved so musically intense and complete that it was actually redrafted for the final opera but – for exactly these reasons – remains a wonderful piece for a programme such as this.

The concert will take place in the main hall of Watford Girls' Grammar School on the evening of Saturday 3rd May.  Tickets will be priced at £7 in advance (children £5) or £8.50 on the door (children £6.50) subject to availability. 

Born in 1983, Tim Thorpe started playing the French Horn at the age of seven when he was a pupil at Cassiobury Junior School in Watford.  His early horn lessons were taken at the Watford School of Music where he was involved in many musical activities until he reached the age of 18.  He won the West Hertfordshire Young Musician of the Year competition in 1999.

From 1996 to 1998 he attended Watford Grammar School for Boys and then moved to The Purcell School.  In 2002 Tim won a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he is studying for his B.Mus.

Tim is a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra and recently toured Europe with them, playing principal horn in a number of works under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy.  He has also been principal horn of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, the Junior Royal Academy Orchestra and Hertfordshire County Youth Orchestra.  Tim enjoys chamber music and has performed at the Wigmore Hall, The Purcell Room, Buckingham Palace and the Cheltenham Festival.

He has given solo performances at the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Academy of Music, The Purcell Room, Cliveden, Leeds City Art Gallery, The Mansion House and St Martin-in-the-Fields.  In July 2002 he won the Three Rivers Young Musician of the Year competition.  Later that month, with the Hertfordshire County Youth Wind Orchestra, he gave the premiere performance of "Summer Nights"; a specially commissioned piece for Horn and Wind Orchestra composed by Martin Ellerby.  In November 2002 he was UK finalist in the Paxman International horn competition for students up to the age of 25.

Tim's ambition is to become a professional horn player with one of the leading symphony orchestras and to continue his chamber and solo work.