Special concert in Wimbledon featuring Jennifer Pike to occur 26 February 2022
January 28, 2022
A special one-off concert, organised by WSO violinist Daniel Flesch, involving seventeen members of the Wimbledon Symphony Orchestra will take place on Saturday 26 February 2022 at St Andrew’s Church, Herbert Road in Wimbledon SW19 3SH.
The performance features acclaimed violinist and dear friend to WSO Jennifer Pike who will perform the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto. Also on the programme will be Borodin’s Overture from his unfinished opera ‘Prince Igor’ (many may recognise the Polovtsian Dances which come from the end of Act 2 of this opera), as well as Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 1.
Acclaimed violinist Jennifer Pike who has performed Dvorák’s (December 2016) & Korngold’s (December 2018) violin concerti with WSO in recent seasons.
Conducting this specially-assembled orchestra (dubbed the “Southwest London Tennis Philharmonic”) for the evening will be Russell Keable, Director of Conducting at the University of Surrey & Music Director of the Kensington Symphony Orchestra.
The ‘Southwest London Tennis Philharmonic’ is an ad hoc orchestra Daniel Flesch originally assembled and dubbed last spring & summer to provide orchestral playing opportunities while regular amateur orchestras were still navigating how to return from the Covid-19 pandemic. Daniel shares more on the project below:
“The initial idea for the ‘Southwest London Tennis Philharmonic’ came to me early in Lockdown 2.0 during the month of November 2020. By this time, WSO was fortunate to have held seven rehearsals in the months of September and October 2020—five of them, strings rehearsals working on Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings & Holst’s St Paul’s Suite; one of them—a woodwinds/horns rehearsal working on Strauss’ Suite in B-flat; and one rehearsal—a selected group of musicians in a chamber orchestra working on Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll. These rehearsals were overseen by guest conductor Ed Whitehead, with the exception of the chamber orchestra rehearsal which was lead by dep conductor Thomas Payne while Ed was away conducting a performance of “Frankenstein” at the Royal Opera House. WSO had hoped to present a concert with limited family/friends audience on Saturday 7th November 2020 presenting these works. Sadly, Lockdown 2.0 saw that this was cancelled.
So by early November 2020, with months of not playing in a symphony orchestra setting, I had a very strong itch to get a group of orchestral musicians together and spend a whole day rehearsing in culmination for a performance at the end of the day (even if it was private or had no audience). That part was key—I had been fortunate to attend several rehearsals at this point, and not just with WSO, but we hadn’t played a true concert since February 2020, and so the ‘Southwest London Tennis Philharmonic’ was born!
I made sure, especially in the early stages, to consult WSO Chair Marion Friend to assure her this was only a temporary ad hoc orchestra and not a regular group that would try to compete with WSO. In fact, I sent out the invitation to virtually every member of WSO to let them know an additional, local playing opportunity was available to them.
Due to complications with restrictions and Lockdown 3.0, the SLTP didn’t actually meet until late April 2021, and even then, I had to jump through hoops to get special permission (going so far as to get written permission from the Department of Social & Cultural Health) for a Repertoire Day in which we rehearsed Beethoven’s Egmont Overture & Brahms’ 2nd Symphony for six hours (many individuals commented how the sheer duration reminded them of the ‘Composerthons’ WSO had held in previous seasons) which was lead by conductor Russell Keable. After a two-hour break to catch dinner, the orchestra reconvened to present these works to a small allotted audience of fifteen people (and one dog!) at 7.30 p.m. It was draining, exhausting, and yet, we all were hyped up talking about how it was the most fun we had through that miserable period of lockdowns.
Musicians gather to rehearse, some of the for the very first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began, at St Andrew’s Church in Wimbledon on 24 April 2021 for a Beethoven & Brahms Repertoire Day from 11.15 a.m. – 5.30 p.m. with an evening concert at 7.30 p.m. that followed with limited, invitation-only audience.
With the success of the SLTP’s Brahms & Beethoven Repertoire Day, I decided to re-launch the project once more, this time a bit more spread-out with two rehearsals (one—5-hours on a spring break bank holiday & the other—3-hours on a Thursday evening), leading up to concert day on Saturday 5th June 2021. This time, the SLTP was conducted by Peter Le Tissier in a programme featuring Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Overture, Lalo’s Cello Concerto in D minor with soloist Julia Morneweg, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Op. 35.
Originally, I thought that would be the end of the Southwest London Tennis Philharmonic; however, when I learnt last August that WSO had decided to only present three concerts this season (as opposed to our usual four or five) out of cautiousness with regards to the pandemic, I thought it might be a nice treat to bring the SLTP back for one, last hurrah since WSO didn’t have a concert in January or February as we normally might and so here we are.
This will be the last time the Southwest London Tennis Philharmonic meets and presents a concert. I am very elated that seventeen musicians from WSO, as well as musicians from throughout London, are able to join us for what should be a wonderful time!
We hope members of the public will consider joining us on Saturday 26 February, 7.30 p.m. at St Andrew’s Church in Wimbledon SW19 3SH. Tickets may be procured in-advance via Eventbrite, as well as on the door. It promises to be a terrific evening!
