Rehearsals are well underway for the Portsmouth Philharmonic’s latest charity concert on 22 March (3pm) and one of the soloists – clarinet player Robert Blanken – has taken some time out to give an interview about his part in the proceedings, which can be watched below.
Blanken will duet with viola player Catherine Lawlor to accompany the orchestra in performing Max Bruch’s concerto for clarinet and viola at the Church of the Resurrection in Drayton. It will be in aid of the Spark community space on Goldsmith Avenue.
As well as the Bruch concerto, the orchestra will be performing Johannes Brahms’ Academic Festival overture and Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No 93.
And the orchestra will be performing a work by another woman composer, namely Ethel Smyth’s overture to ‘The Wreckers’, after the success of playing Doreen Carwithen at its last concert.
Orchestra Chair Di Lloyd said: “We are really looking forward to this concert. To be able to work with musicians of the calibre of Robert and Catherine is always a great pleasure and Bruch’s concerto is delightful.
“We also like to challenge ourselves and our audiences with less familiar works, but in Smyth’s piece I think we are all in for a treat. Our playing a piece by a female composer was long overdue, so we have decided to do it again. Smyth’s is a complex yet accessible piece of music which I’m sure the audience will appreciate.”
Tickets, priced £10 for adults (booking fees apply), are on sale now here. The Portsmouth Philharmonic has raised more than £25,000 for local good causes since it was founded in 2009. It is supported by Bishops’ Printers.
Watch the interview on YouTube.
