Wolverhampton Symphony Orchestra (WSO) celebrated their golden anniversary this past summer with a memorable concert recalling their beautiful past.
The final concert commemorating the anniversary took place on 22 June in their customary surroundings of Wolverhampton Grammar School’s Great Hall, and it was a repeat of the orchestra’s very first concert on 6 July 1974. They performed a varied repertoire, inluding Weber's Der Freischütz Overture, Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor, Liszt's Tone Poem: Les Préludes and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. Among the 80 performers, only the Second Flute Diana Manasseh played in both concerts, but in the capacity audience were several former players and two of the former conductors, Peter Barlow and Mark Finch. The soloist in the Schumann concerto was Petra Milarova.
Conductor Peter Morris, with a mere 20 years of service and 80 WSO concerts under his belt, welcomed the audience with a few facts about 1974. Unsurprisingly, the most well-known items included the success of Wolves, who won the League Cup in that year, and the first appearance of Rubik’s cube; but a pint of beer at 22p was a rueful shock to many! Another insightful find was the original programme from 1974 citing that student subscription members were £2.50 - one thing that got cheaper as time went on, as today they are free.
Original programme from the 1974 concert
The concert was a delightful occasion and brought together both the oldest former members of the orchestra and the youngest members too. The orchestra is in very good heart and looking forward to the 51st's next year, with such performances as Petrushka, Britten’s Young Person’s Guide and the 2nd symphony from one of their very own string players, Rory Freckleton.
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