Martin Smith & Anna Le Hair

Performers

Notes on the performers

Martin was taught to play by his father and they both played in the local Salvation Army Band. At the age of eighteen Martin gave up playing to pursue sporting interests, his career and later on, his family. After a thirty-five year absence from playing, he returned to playing and as part of his comeback he passed his ATCL and LTCL, both with distinction in one year and passed his Fellowship at Trinity College London (FTCL). He also studied under Dr Robert Childs for a Masters Degree In Music Performance at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. Having given up playing for so long he is very encouraged by the new music written for the solo euphonium for recitals and concertos with orchestras. He has an ever-growing number of public recitals and solo performances in the UK from St Martin-in-the-Fields, London through to the Town Hall in Lerwick to St Davids Hall, Cardiff and abroad. He takes great delight in hearing of audience members being encouraged by his example and returning to music!

Martin recorded his debut album, The Lyrical Euphonium at the Ty Cerdd studios in the Wales Millenium Centre with Dr Robert Childs as his producer. It has received excellent critical acclaim and was awarded the Silver Medal at the 2023 ITEA Roger Bobo Awards for excellence in recording. It has also been featured several times on BBC Radio 3 Breakfast, BBC Radio 4 and Magic Classical and has sailed past one million streams on Spotify.

Anna Le Hair gained an honours degree in music at Edinburgh University, and her postgraduate studies were at the Royal College of Music, London. Anna has a busy and varied career as a performer, teacher, accompanist, ABRSM examiner, adjudicator and conductor. Engagements have included recitals, both solo and as chamber musician and accompanist, as well as soloist in several piano concertos, in many venues in London and around Britain and abroad. Anna currently teaches piano and accompanies at St Albans School, and she also has a thriving private teaching practice at her home in Tring. She is the founder of and runs the successful ‘Piano and more’ concert series at St Peter and St Paul church in Tring and is a founder member of the Icknield Ensemble. She completed her first international examining tour for ABRSM in summer 2019 to Malaysia. She is delighted to have had the idea to put on this concert in memory of Kirsty Flood, and it is an honour and a pleasure to perform alongside such wonderful musicians and to be raising money for such a worthy cause.

Programme

Programme notes

Hummel arr. Wilby Chiles

Fantasy

Originally written for the viola and orchestra and called Potpourri op. 94 this arrangement features popular melodies from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Nozze di Figaro and Rossini’s Tancredi. In fact, about 60% of the music is borrowed from hit tunes of the day. These tunes are framed by an opening “Grave” section and a very virtuosic Rondo closing section written by Hummel.

Capuzzi

Concerto arr. David Childs and Martin Smith

What a privilege it was to assist in the arrangement of the first movement of the double bass concerto. The second and third movements have been played for some years on the euphonium but at last the complete concerto can be performed. The first movement has a military feel to it and the cadenza was written based on other Capuzzi music I discovered in the British Library and references the lively third movement. The lovely slow 2nd movement provides a reflective contrast that shows this arrangement of the double bass concerto works so well on the euphonium.

Rebecca Clarke arr Robb

I’ll bid my heart be still,

This lovely arrangement of a Scottish Borders melody was created by composer Rebecca Clarke as a wedding gift to her husband to be in 1944. The original melody is an old love song with lyrics by Thomas Pringle.

Rob Wiffin OBE

The Red Kite

I asked Rob to write a new work for the euphonium and I am delighted with the Red Kite. At one time the Red Kite was close to national extinction but now it is possible to admire this distinctive bird of prey with its red colouring and forked tail. I love watching it soaring so gracefully through the sky. Rob said in writing it he had in mind making the euphonium glide solitary and effortlessly, occasionally swooping down then reclaiming its high altitude.

The harmonic rhythm is slow but the movement switches in the way that the Red Kite can make slight changes of direction by minor adjustments of its tail. On top of this accompaniment the soloist is left to sing with a sense of grace and freedom.

Rob began his career as a trombonist, but while he has always retained his affection for the instrument, he has become much more widely known as a conductor and more recently has developed his reputation as a composer and arranger. He was Professor of Conducting at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall and teaches at the Royal College of Music.

Cecilia McDowall

Nocturne in blue and gold

The piece reflects the artist Whistler’s painting of the delicate structure of the Old Battersea Bridge looming over a nocturnal river. A shower of gold sparks cascades from the bridge into the dark waters below.

Born in London, 1951, Cecilia McDowall has won many awards, been short-listed eight times for the British Composer Awards and in 2014 won the Choral category of the British Composer Awards for her haunting work, Night Flight. McDowall’s distinctive style speaks directly to listeners, instrumentalists and singers alike. Her music has been commissioned and performed by leading choirs, including the BBC Singers

Rodney Newton

Sonatina 2nd movt.

It is always encouraging when new pieces are written for the euphonium and piano. Rodney Newton is an excellent composer, arranger, orchestrator and music editor. He also played with the Saddlers wells Opera for 11 years with last five years as principal percussionist. I asked him to write this piece for me and I am delighted to feature this sonatina. There are three movements based on dances, namely a Pavane, Sarabande and an Irish Jig. The Sarabande is dedicated to Morfydd Myfanwy Childs the mother of Dr Robert Childs, my tutor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and producer on my “Lyrical Euphonium” recording, who passed away recently and it is a beautiful, reflective and elegiac piece of writing.

Peter Graham

Force of Nature, 2nd movement, Wayfarer

This work is based on the extraordinary life of Ernest Hemingway. The three movements Matador, Wayfarer and Pilar all reflect important times in his life. The second movement, Wayfarer, is featured today reflecting Hemingway’s service as an ambulance driver on the Italian front in World War 1 where he was seriously injured by shrapnel in 1918 which put paid to his adolescent illusions of immortality.

Sarasate

Zigeunerweisen

Written in 1878 by Pablo de Sarasate these gypsy airs were attributed to Romani people but they are of Hungarian folk music origin. It has been a staple for violin virtuosos but works so well for the euphonium in this excellent arrangement by Robert Childs and Philip Wilby.

Notes by Martin Smith