i It Ain’t Necessarily So, ii Summertime, iii I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’
The opera Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin, with libretto by lyricist Ira Gershwin and author Dubose Heyward, was first performed in Boston in 1935. After an initially unpopular reception it was revived in later years to great success. The aria Summertime has acquired iconic status, performed alike by classical and popular artists.
In 1904 Apollinaire visited the painters Derain and Vlaminck who lived in the area; he passed by the Grenouillère, and saluted, in passing, a once-celebrated watering-hole frequented by the Impressionists and literati more than thirty years earlier. More than thirty years after the poem was written, Poulenc, now at his height as a song composer, captures the poem’s atmosphere with relaxed insouciance, gently resigned to the transitory nature of life in the late heyday of the second Empire.
This Berceuse (Op 16) was written around 1879. In its original form it was composed for violin and piano. A “berceuse” is a lullaby and this is reflected in the gently rhythmic lilt of the melody.
i Allegro moderato, ii Siciliano, iii Allegro
The second flute sonata is believed to date from around 1717-1723. The keyboard accompaniment features a concertante part where the right hand is as musically important as the lead instrument, making for some interesting dovetailing of the melodic lines. Flute music suits the chromatic harmonica well – the instruments share the same range (middle C upwards for three octaves). Our arrangement has involved some minor re-arranging of William Bennett’s 1983 edition for modern flute. The second movement, Siciliano, is famous as a standalone concert piece.
i America, ii Tonight, iii Cool, iv Somewhere, v Gee, Officer Krupke
The musical West Side Story has had two famous incarnations: firstly, the original Broadway production which opened in 1957 and ran for 732 performances; secondly, the 2021 film version directed by Steven Spielberg. The book is a re-telling of the Romeo and Juliet story set in 1950s New York. The score blends jazz, Latin, symphonic grandeur and musical-comedy conventions in a format that was groundbreaking for its time; instrumental extracts from West Side Story have since become a staple of classical concert programmes.
Oblivion was composed in 1982 and originally arranged for bandonéon, piano and bass. It has since been arranged for piano solo, clarinet, orchestra, and even a spoken version. The piece was commissioned and featured in the 1984 film Enrico IV (“Henry IV”) by Marco Bellocchio. Adapted from the eponymous theatrical piece by Luigi Pirandello, the plot tells the story of a man who, after losing conscience, thinks he is the famous king. The piece became popular from the film and lives to this day through concert performances. Piazzola elicits an atmospheric and haunting ambience in his composition, evoking the image of oblivion.
Libertango is a composition by tango composer and bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla, recorded and published in 1974 in Milan. The title is a portmanteau merging “Libertad” (Spanish for “liberty”) and “tango”, symbolizing Piazzolla’s break from classical tango to tango nuevo.
i Midnight Cowboy, ii Dances With Wolves, iii The Entertainer
The chromatic harmonica has featured in some memorable film soundtracks, notably Midnight Cowboy, featuring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, and Dances With Wolves. In this arrangement the John Dunbar theme is played, the part of Dunbar performed by Kevin Costner in the 1990 film. The medley is rounded off with The Entertainer from the film The Sting (1973). The film doesn’t feature harmonica but we love playing this Scott Joplin classic from the ragtime era!
i Main theme, ii Love Theme
Ennio Morricone (1928 – 2020) was an Italian composer who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classical works, Morricone is widely considered one of the most prolific and greatest film composers of all time. He has received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards, three Grammy Awards, three Golden Globes, six BAFTAs. Cinema Paradiso (1988), a coming-of-age drama set based around the cinema of a small Italian town, won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Phil Hopkins & John Lenehan (Harmonica/Piano Duo)
Phil Hopkins
Phil was a music scholar at King’s School Canterbury, graduated from Oxford University and studied chromatic harmonica with the great classical harmonica player, Tommy Reilly.
Since then, Phil has played harmonica for the BBC Concert Orchestra, London Sinfonietta at St John Smith’s Square, and for West End musicals such as The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Savoy Theatre), Sir Tim Rice’s From Here To Eternity (Shaftesbury Theatre), the London premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, and Sir Trevor Nunn’s Gone With The Wind (New London Theatre).
Phil has played percussion and/or harmonica for more than 140 London theatre productions spanning over 4500 performances across the West End, Royal National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe and Royal Shakespeare Company. Phil has toured the USA many times with various artists including performances at Carnegie Hall, New York’s Lincoln Center and Symphony Hall, Boston and has performed for many TV and CD recordings.
Phil has recently released an album, Harmonica Paradiso, available online from Bandcamp.
John Lenehan
In a career of unusual diversity, with an extensive discography of more than 80 albums of music ranging from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries, John Lenehan has performed in concerts worldwide and his breadth of repertoire has led to his popularity on Spotify and Apple music with over a million monthly listeners globally. Praised by the New York Times for his “great flair and virtuosity” and the (London) Times – “a masterly recital”, John Lenehan has also collaborated with some of the leading instrumentalists of our time.
As soloist he has appeared with LSO, RPO and LPO amongst many other orchestras and his recordings include piano recitals and concertos as well as duo sonatas, chamber music and jazz. A four-disc survey of John Ireland’s piano music received great critical acclaim including a Gramophone award, and other solo recordings include three discs for Sony Classical of minimalist piano works and a disc of Erik Satie (for Classic FM). Most recently he has recorded albums with the Rossetti Ensemble as well as concertos by Mozart (K.467) and Beethoven (Emperor) with the National Symphony Orchestra.
John Lenehan also composes, with works published by Faber, Novello, and Schotts. His Fantasy on Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker has been recorded by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and his 2023 piano concerto “The Legend of Maritime Silk Road” (commissioned by the Silk Road International Arts Centre and premiered in Beijing) has been performed in China several times since then. He has written and arranged for a long list of soloists and orchestras including Lang Lang, Nigel Kennedy, Yuja Wang, Tasmin Little, Nicola Benedetti and the BBC Concert Orchestra, RPO and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. In 2021 his work was heard in the Bastille Day celebrations in Paris (Orchestre de Paris) and the last night of the proms (BBCSO). A collaboration during lockdown with Dame Joanna Lumley and the Philharmonia created a reading of “The Night before Xmas” with incidental music. His recent reworking of Malcolm Arnold’s concerto for 2 pianos (3 hands) as a piece for one soloist was premiered by him in 2025 at the Malcolm Arnold festival. John’s interest in the combination of music and film has been long-standing. As well as performing on several more recent soundtracks (such as Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings) he has, as director of “Sounds for Silents” written and arranged more than 20 scores for silent films, and continues to present film and music programmes, reviving the art of the improvising pianist – the most recent being a tribute to the roaring twenties.
Scan QR code for extended programme notes & biographies: