The founder of Swindon Recital Series is to take to the Wyvern Theatre stage next month.
Founder and artistic director Paul Turner will have the stage to himself for this recital as he plays some of Beethoven’s most popular music.
He will appear on Wednesday, April 6 at 1.05pm. Standard tickets are priced at £7 plus an administration fee of 50 pence, while student tickets are £3 and accompanied children aged 14 and under will be admitted without charge.
Mr Turner will be playing some of the best-loved works by one of the best-loved classical composers.
The Moonlight Sonata was written when Beethoven was 31 and in love with his piano student, The Countess Giuletta Guicciadri. He proposed and she accepted, but her parents forebade the match as Beethoven was a commoner. This sonata is dedicated to her.
Shortly after Beethoven’s death a well-known music critic commented that the first movement sounded like moonlight shining on Lake Lucerne and so the sonata gained its popular title. The name may be romantic but overall the mood is darker and heavier than it implies.
His Rondo Op 51 No 1 opens with a theme suggestive initially of grace and elegance, but the music becomes darker and more intense. It is regarded as not being one of the composer’s deeper creations, but its energy and youthful charm are said to make it a thoroughly worthwhile listening experience.
The Pathétique Sonata was composed when Beethoven was 27. Although ‘pathetic’ is not a complimentary term these days, in Beethoven’s time a dictionary defined it as affecting the emotions of pity, grief or sorrow.
One of the most celebrated of his works – and the most often used as a basis for popular music over recent decades (Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence is an example) – the piece moves from dark and dramatic through calm contemplation to end with an energetic flourish.
Mr Turner is an Honours graduate and an elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music where his many prizes and awards culminated in the Queen’s Commendation for Excellence and the Peter Pears Accompaniment Prize. An experienced recitalist, he has appeared at London’s leading venues and major UK festivals.
He founded the recital series 27 years ago, and the series is committed to providing world-class chamber music in the Swindon area by presenting regular concerts of chamber music given by professional musicians.
The series takes place between September and April each year at various venues in and around Swindon, including the Wyvern Theatre and the Arts Centre.
The concert is supported by Bower Bailey, Solicitors, and the ticket office can be reached via https://swindontheatres.co.uk and on 0343 310 0040.
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