The Scottish Chamber Orchestra Winds perform Strauss’s Serenade in E-flat Op 7 and Sonatina No 2 in E-flat, better known as the ‘Happy Workshop’. Michael Collins, a renowned clarinetist when not conducting, is well-placed as conductor of this programme which features two works which bookend Strauss’s musical life.
Strauss’s career was launched by the Serenade in E-flat, which he wrote at the age of 17 in 1881/2. The work was heard by influential German musician, Hans von Bulow. Impressed, von Bulow took Strauss under his wing and mentored him through the next few years, in due course making him his conducting assistant at the Meinigen Orchestra.
64 years later, in 1944/45, Strauss wrote his ‘Happy Workshop’ – a spiritual remedy during a difficult period in world history. The work is dedicated to Mozart, for whom Strauss had a life-long passion. Like Mozart, Strauss loved wind instruments (his father was a horn player) and he spent many of his last years writing concertos for them.
Renowned clarinettist Michael Collins is increasingly in demand in his parallel career as director. As a soloist, he has performed with many of the world’s major orchestras, including the Philadelphia, Sydney Symphony and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He founded London Winds in 1988.
Each Scottish Chamber Orchestra CL@SIX concert starts at 6pm, lasts no more than one hour, and showcases the diversity and musical range of the full Orchestra, as well as special performances by the SCO Strings and Wind Ensembles. The concerts are short, taking place in early evening, with popular programmes and aimed at attracting passing commuters wishing to avoid the rush hour, families looking for a shorter concert experience, as well as regular concert goers.
Scottish Chamber Orchestra Principal Guest Conductor, Olari Elts, brings the CL@SIX series to a close on Tuesday 13 January 2009 with an all-Mendelssohn programme featuring the Hebrides Overture and ‘Scottish’ Symphony. The concert is part of the SCO’s Mendelssohn 200 series which celebrates the bicentenary of the composer’s birth, and includes performances of Elijah and his ‘Reformation’ Symphony. -- www.sco.test.poptel.org.uk
