Maidstone Symphony Orchestra, Laura van der Heijden

The 2nd concert in MSO's 105th Season has a distinctly Mediterranean feel. We begin with Richard Strauss' epic tone-poem Don Juan. The Don Juan legend originated in Renaissance-era Spain. Strauss's tone poem is based on Don Juans Ende, a play derived from an unfinished 1844 retelling of the tale by poet Nikolaus Lenau.

Strauss reprinted three excerpts from the play in his score. In Lenau's rendering, Don Juan's promiscuity springs from his determination to find the ideal woman. Despairing of ever finding her, he ultimately surrenders to melancholy and wills his own death.

Performances of the work last around sixteen minutes. The difficulty of the work makes excerpts from Don Juan a staple of orchestral audition lists for many instruments.

Briefly return to England, where former BBC Young Musician of the Year, Laura van der Heijden entertains you with William Walton's Cello Concerto, the piece she won the BBC competition with back in 2012.

Next, you will hear music by the French Composer Albert Roussel - The Spider's Feast. This is music taken from the ballet of the same name. The ballet depicts insect life in a garden, evoked by the flute solo at the opening and close of the work, and where insects are trapped in the spider's web, but when the spider prepares to begin its feast, it in turn is killed by a praying mantis. The funeral procession of the mayfly concludes the work. The full ballet lasts approximately half an hour.

Finally, travel to Italy with Edward Elgar, whose piece In The South was written during a Winter holiday with his family in the Italian town of Alassio, on the Italian Riviera. He strolled around during the visit, while buildings, landscape and history of the town provided him the sources of inspiration.

Perhaps the best known part of the piece is the central serenade played by a solo viola. In July of the same year, Elgar took this section from the piece and fitted it to a poem by Shelley as a song under the title In Moonlight. Later he made several instrumental versions titled "Canto Popolare".

The piece is about 20 minutes long. The main descending theme is echoed throughout the sections of the orchestra all through the piece. The viola solo is of particular note due partly to its length, being on such an underused instrument, but also because of the contrast it creates with the rest of the piece which is very bold. There are large legato passages between the strings and horns, and the rest of the brass add tremendous excitement in the middle of the piece with loud chords separated by large intervals.