Royal Northern Sinfonia

Programme:
Debussy - Danses sacree et profane
Milhaud - Scaramouche
Stravinsky - Danses concertantes
Debussy - Sarabande
Villa Lobos - Fantasia for Soprano Saxophone
Milhaud - Le boeuf sur le toit

Everybody dance! Debussy evokes ancient Greece, Stravinsky breaks open a paintbox of orchestral colours, and the brilliant young sax star Jess Gillam plays showpieces with a Latin flavour. Then it's time to salsa, with Milhaud's uproarious Le boeuf sur le toit.

Debussy's 'Sacred and Profane Dance' for harp and strings opens our programme. Commissioned by a firm of instrument builders to showcase the virtues of their newest harp. Milhaud initially did not want his Scaramouche to be published, fearing this simple work would damage the dignity and reputation of his most important works. However, he was persuaded by his publisher and audiences have been grateful ever since! Stravinsky's Dances concertantes were designed for concert performance rather than the stage, nevertheless he cast it in the form of an abstract ballet inspired by exoticism and mysticism.

Orchestrated by Maurice Ravel, Desbussy's Sarabande is the middle movement of his Pour le piano. Enjoy this slow and stately dance of the Renaissance. Villa Lobo's Fantasia for Soprano Saxophone stands as the cornerstone of soprano sax repertoire and who better to perform it Jess Gillam, winner of the 2016 BBC Young Musician Woodwind Final. Get ready to salsa with Milhaud's Le boeuf sure le toit, the surrealist ballet influenced by Brazillian popular music.

Royal Northern Sinfonia is the UK's only full-time chamber orchestra, and the leading professional orchestra in the North East. For 60 years, RNS has been delighting audiences across the region and beyond and has build a world-wide reputation through the quality of its music-making and the immediacy of the connections the musicians make with audiences.