Frome Symphony: Frome Festival

Shostakovich: Festive Overture, Op. 96

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major performed by Arabella Thornton

Prokofiev: Symphony No 5

Experience an evening of exhilarating music as the Frome Symphony Orchestra celebrates the end of Frome Festival.

We kick off with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, Op. 96. This vibrant piece was written to commemorate the anniversary of the October Revolution, and it bursts with energy and excitement, reflecting the composer’s mastery of orchestration and rhythm.

Then Arabella Thornton performs Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4. Arabella is leader of the Second Violins in Frome Symphony and we are thrilled to get her centre stage.

Arabella has just turned 19 and has lived all her life in Frome. She started learning the violin aged 6 and was taught her mother, Mark Gateshill and Louise Padday. At 14, she started attending the Royal College of Music Junior Department every Saturday, where she studied with Amy Tress. She has taken a gap year this year but will be going to study violin at The Guildhall in September. Arabella has performed as a soloist with Wessex Strings and has been a member of Frome Symphony Orchestra for several years. She is delighted to bring Mozart to you this evening and is playing on an 1870s violin by J Stainer.

In the second half we will perform Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. The creation of the Fifth Symphony can be traced to musical ideas explored during the composition of Prokofiev’s earlier work, particularly the Symphony No. 4 in C major composed fourteen years previously. Prokofiev incorporated these musical motifs into a piano score over less than a month during his stay at The Composers’ House in Ivanovo, under the background of the Soviet Union’s involvement in World War II.

He gave out in a statement at the time of the work’s premiere that he intended it as “a hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit.” He added, “I cannot say that I deliberately chose this theme. It was born in me and clamoured for expression. The music matured within me. It filled my soul.”

This concert wraps up a fantastic season for Frome Symphony and wraps up another incredible Frome Festival.