On Wednesday 25 September the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performed its first concert at the Royal Albert Hall of the 2024–25 season with American Classics, featuring music by Bernstein, Copland, Gershwin and John Williams under the baton of conductor Michael Seal. We were joined by vocalists Anna-Jane Casey and Tobias Turley, as well as pianist Eric Lu for Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
The concert opened with Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, a piece commissioned by Eugene Goossens for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Copland challenged himself to 'compose a traditional fanfare, direct and powerful, yet with a contemporary sound.’
This was followed by two classics of American musicals - Richard Rogers' Waltz from the 1945 musical Carousel, and Berstein's Overture to the Voltaire-inspired Candide.
The American canon would be incomplete without Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, a piece that premiered in 1938 and has been used to tug at the heart-strings in many different settings ever since, from films such as The Elephant Man to the funeral of Franklin Roosevelt.
The first half closed out with more Bernstein in the form of his West Side Story Concert Suite No.1, a 1992 arrangement that includes some of the best-known songs from the legendary 1957 musical, featuring Maria, One Hand, One Heart and Somewhere. Vocalists Anna-Jane Casey and Tobias Turley sung the parts of Maria and Tony.
At the start of the second half there was a special guest appearance - not a person on stage, but one of the instruments! For John Williams' Olympic Fanfare, one of our trumpeters, Toby Street, played a trumpet that was used at the premiere of the piece in the 1984 L.A Olympics. We are very grateful to Lesley for donating the trumpet for this occasion.
Lesley, who donated the Olympic trumpet, and the RPO trumpet section.
We were then joined by pianist Eric Lu for Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. The 1924 hallmark of American jazz was Gershwin's big break from being a Broadway composer to becoming someone who could make their mark in the concert hall. The iconic clarinet slide, as legend has it, is only there because the clarinettist for the first performance, Ross Gorman, wanted to annoy Gershwin in a rehearsal, but the composer liked it so much he left it in.
The concert finished with more Gershwin - his rip-roaring An American in Paris, a dazzling, brilliantly-orchestrated sojourn through the streets of Paris in the heyday of the 1920s.
Thank you to all who came to this concert. You can explore more of our concerts coming up at the Royal Albert Hall in the 2024–25 Season by following the button below.