& amp;lt;strong>NEXT Saturday, July 1, the IW Symphony Orchestra will perform the final concert of Medina Theatre’s orchestral series.
It promises to be a treat. Debussy’s magnificent La Mer forms the dramatic centrepiece of a programme entirely inspired by the sea. It is a richly evocative depiction and a masterpiece of impressionism.
Conductor Jonathan Butcher continues to introduce rarely performed works and Ethel Smythe’s overture, The Wreckers, will receive its first performance on the Island. It was inspired by the actions of notorious 19th century Cornish villagers who lured ships onto the rocks, plundering them of their cargo.
Smythe was a member of the suffragette movement and her work proved inspirational to female composers in what was, at the time, a male-dominated profession.
Klaus Bardett’s much-loved music from Pirates of the Caribbean is sure to be popular with the audience, as will Henry Wood’s uplifting Fantasia on British Sea Songs, performed annually at the Last Night of the Proms. Also on the programme is Percy Grainger’s inspired arrangement of the Irish folk melody Molly on the Shore and Dvorak’s scintillating Carnival overture.
The evening begins at 7.15pm and, as at all its concerts this year, the orchestra will be supporting the Hampshire and IW Air Ambulance.