Bristol Concert Orchestra

Everyone enjoys a good tune. We begin with student drinking songs in Brahms’ popular Academic Festival Overture.

A work composed when he was awarded an honorary Doctorate by the University of Breslau, a notable ‘old world’ institution. This is followed by the lyrical and very accessible Violin Concerto of Welsh composer Grace Williams. She studied under Gordon Jacob in the early twentieth century as did many notable British composers including several women, such as Imogen Holst. Williams represents a new sound world in the style of her compositions, breaking new ground at a time when women were just beginning to make their marks as composers. She was the first British woman to score a full-length feature film. We conclude with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, composed in America by a man homesick for his beloved Czechoslovakia; hence ‘From the New World’. Dvořák drew on his cultural heritage as inspiration, including the melody which later became the soundtrack of the nostalgic ‘Hovis’ advert.