With Queen Elizabeth II marking the jubilee of her reign and London hosting the
Olympics 2012 seemed to conductor Emily Freeman Brown the perfect time to
celebrate England.She will lead the Bowling Green Philharmonia in the
performances of two major 20th Century English works Sunday at 3 p.m. in
Kobacker Hall on the BGSU campus. Tickets are $10. Contact
http://www.bgsu.edu/cultural_arts/ or (419) 372-8171.The program features Ralph
Vaughn Williams’ "A London Symphony" and British composer William
Walton’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra with Matthew McBride-Daline as
soloist.To be able to perform the concerto with a full orchestra is "a rare
opportunity," Daline said. The piece is close to his heart. "It’s
really the piece that turned me onto the viola," he said.He first heard a
recording of it featuring William Primrose in 1995 while an undergraduate at the
Juilliard School. "It’s quite a long journey with this piece," he
said.This will be the second time he’s performed it with an orchestra.Daline
said he was attracted to because the concerto "has a very melancholy tone
and a very vocal tenor range, ideally suited for the viola."The composer
actually felt Primrose played it too fast.A later recording by Frederick Riddle
captures a different approach, Daline said. "It’s much more smooth and
melancholy and has elements of jazz, a lot of syncopation and jazzy
rhythms," he said. "It’s a very catchy piece.He appreciates working
with Brown, "a first class conductor." Daline added: "The
orchestra is handling it quite well. It is a very challenging part.""A
London Symphony" is one of Williams’ own favorite pieces. Years after he
composed it, he said, it would be better titled "Symphony By a
Londoner," Brown said."It paints a musical portrait of London,"
Brown said.The symphony includes the sound of Big Ben’s chimes, and a quote from
a folk song. "The first movement is evocative of an early morning mist
rising off the Thames followed by a forceful move into a fully awake city,"
she said.Williams himself wrote of the third movement: "If the hearer will
imagine himself standing on Westminster Embankment at night surrounded by the
distant sounds of the Strand … with its crowded streets and flashing lights,
it may serve as a mood in which to listen to this movement."Brown described
the final movement as opening "with a passionate outcry that prefaces a
deeply felt march."
