Spring Concert: Holst, Vaughan Williams and Schumann

“The Perfect Fool” was Holst’s one act opera written not long after he had completed The Planets after the first world war. Although the opera was not successful and is rarely performed, the opening four-movement Ballet Suite which is performed tonight remains one of Holst’s most popular works.

Frome-based musician and educator James Watts is soloist in the Oboe Concerto by Vaughan Williams, written during the second world war. Schumann’s Symphony no. 3, written in 1850, captures scenes of life on the river Rhine, and has stylistic similarities to Beethoven’s Eroica.