Â鶹ԼÅÄ Concert Orchestra
Johannes Wildner conductor
Joseph Shovelton tenor
Alex Wyndham reader
As part of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s World War One centenary season, the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Concert Orchestra looks at life through the lens of prisoners held in two wartime internment camps; one in London at Alexandra Palace and one in Germany at Ruhleben racecourse near Berlin.
Made up of men of fighting age who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, both camps formed orchestras. Together they put on concerts for their fellow captives, maintaining their sense of self and the spirit of their homelands.
The orchestra performs a selection of music played and written in the camps whilst actor Alex Wyndham (The Crimson Field, Â鶹ԼÅÄ) reads letters and poetry to tell the real-life story of the prisoners.
Pre-concert talk: 6pm
Join music and literature First World War expert Dr Kate Kennedy, British Library Curator of Music Collections Dr Rupert Ridgewell and English music champion Lewis Foreman to find out more about the history and music from the Ruhluben and Alexandra Palace internment camps.
Free to ticket holders of the 7.30pm concert
Image: Ruhleben Camp Orchestra with kind permission of the Historical & Special Collections, Harvard Law School.
Programme:
- - - Music from the Ruhleben Camp - - -
Nicolai Merry Wives of Windsor – overture
Played in the camp
Bainton Intermezzo & Humoresque for Orchestra
Written in the camp as incidental music to Shakespeare plays put on in the camps
Saint-Saens Danse macabre
Played in the camp
Benjamin Dale Prunella
Written in camp as incidental music for the play Prunella by Laurence Housman (brother of A E Housman)
Bryceson Treharne The Aftermath
Written in the camp
Sullivan ‘The Wandering Minstrel I’ from Mikado
Performed in camp, written out from memory
Elgar Serenade for strings
Played in the camp
- - - Music from Alexandra Palace Camp - - -
Gounod Faust – march
Played in the camp
Wagner Tannhäuser – overture
Played in the camp
Bizet ‘Blumenlied’ from Carmen
Played in the camp
R Heuberger ‘Im chamber separee’ from Der Opernball
Played in the camp
Strauss Tales from the Vienna Woods
Played in the camp
Anton Wuest Alexandra Palace Ragtime Waltz
Written in the camp for the Kaiser’s birthday concert
