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A magical Christmas treat for families
The Mozart Symphony Orchestra returns to Cheltenham perform The Gruffalo and The Snowman on Sat 23 Dec.
Now a regular highlight of Christmas in Cheltenham, the Mozart Symphony Orchestra (MSO) returns to Cheltenham Town Hall, bringing their famous Christmas show from London for one day only.
The Gruffalo is a new version of Julia Donaldson’s wonderful tale of the mouse who comes face to face with a monster from his own imagination. MSO director Philip Mackenzie, who is Gloucestershire-born and had is first musical experiences with the Cotswold Symphony Orchestra at Dean Close School, and at Cheltenham Town Hall, has written this new piece for narrator and orchestra in the style of Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’: each character in the tale is represented by a different instrument of the orchestra. Whereas Prokofiev used standard orchestral instruments for each character in his work, Mackenzie has opted to use the peripheral instruments from the woodwind section, so the mouse becomes the piccolo, the snake the cor anglais, the fox the high E flat clarinet and the Gruffalo the contra-bassoon (like a bassoon but twice as big and twice as low)!
The idea came to Philip when he was reading the classic tale to his three year old son. Philip started composing ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’ and it was obvious from the beginning that the central character of the child would have to be played by the bassoon – a smaller higher pitched instrument than the contra-bassoon.
In the second half of the concert the orchestra provides a live sound track to the classic Christmas film ‘The Snowman’. This is particularly difficult to achieve as it involves split second timing! The aria ‘Walking in the Air’ (made famous by Aled Jones in 1985) will be sung by 13-year-old Alice Mackenzie.
This is the perfect antidote to panto and a wonderful Christmas treat for the whole family. According to The Times newspaper, “You would be hard pushed to find a more magical Christmas experience”.
There are two performances on Sat 23 Dec, 1pm and 3.30pm.
The Gruffalo & The Snowman Tickets to the MSO performance are via W: www.cheltenhamtownhall.org.uk and T: 01242 528764
