A NEW series of Sheffield University Lunchtime Concerts beginning next Thursday must mean the Department of Music's main autumn concert season at Firth Hall is imminent.
It starts the following Tuesday, October 14, when renowned pianist Angela Brownridge plays a programme of Beethoven's 'Tempest' Sonata, Debussy's Estampes, Chopin's Scherzo No 2 and Polonaise in A flat Op 53, Kenneth Leighton's Five Studies Op 22 and
Scriabin's 12 Etudes Op 8.
Three weeks later, November 4, the rising young Australian soprano Gillian Ramm pays a visit to perform Handel's dramatic cantata Crudel Tirano Amor and music by Purcell with harpsichordist Julian Perkins.
The 100th anniversary of Messiaen's birth is celebrated, chiefly with performances of his Quartet for the End of Time from Peter Hill and members of the Scottish Chambers Orchestra on November 30 and, on December 9, when the highly-rated Irish pianist Maria McGarry plays Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus.
More of a rarity, Messiaen's Two Choruses for Jeanne d'Arc are part of a University Chamber Choir concert with a Wagner arrangement of a Palestrina Stabat Mater and Brahms arrangement of Schubert's Mass in E flat D950 on December 2.
Other in-house concerts are from the New Music Ensemble (November 11), Wind Orchestra (November 23), Peter Cropper's Elgar String Orchestra (November 25), including Tchaikovsky's Serenade Op 48 and Elgar's Elegy Op 58, and the Symphony Orchestra (December 14), including Richard Rodney Bennett's Concerto for Stan Getz.
The Wind Orchestra's concert is its annual charity event for Sheffield Children's Hospital and includes Paul Patterson's setting of Roald Dahl's Little Red Riding Hood narrated by Polly Ives.
Rock (the geographical variety) music from Uganda features in a London Sinfonietta concert curated by composer Nigel Osborne on October 21 and the sounds of Argentina and South America are heard, courtesy of Guillermo Rozenthuler and Rioplatenses, on November 18.
The sound of Stephen Sondheim takes the stage in two performances of his 1970 musical of sorts, Company, at the Montgomery Theatre, Surrey Street on December 18/19.
Concert tickets remain as priced in previous seasons.
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