Composed in the late 1970s and premiered in 1980, Peter Maxwell Davies’ solo piano work, Farewell to Stromness, is one of his most accessible works. The piece was written as a protest against a proposed uranium mine near the small village of Stromness, where the composer lived for some time.

Originally composed as a solo piano piece, Farewell to Stromness has been re-orchestrated many times for a range of different instruments and ensembles. The piece became even more popular when Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles used an arrangement by the Philharmonia Orchestra at the blessing of their marriage in 2005.

The work isn’t necessarily quintessential Davies, however the simple melody has become one of the most recognisable tunes. Davies spoke to The Guardian about this work around the time of it’s premiere:

“My little piano piece Farewell to Stromness has almost become a folk tune. People just say, ‘I like that piece’, and they don’t know who wrote it. It gets played an awful lot at funerals these days. And that’s very unusual, for a so-called serious composer, to write a piece that people like so much, and they don’t care who it’s by.”

©  Alex Burns

Vivaldi’s greatness lay in his extraordinary mastery of eighteenth-century instrumental forms and orchestration. Though he composed numerous operas, he is best known for his close to 500 concertos, of which more than 230 were written for solo violin, some 120 for a variety of other solo instruments including winds, many for more than one soloist, and approximately 60 for string orchestra without solo instrument known as ripieno concertos.

Vivaldi’s own instrument was the violin, which he had studied with his father, a violinist at the famous St. Mark’s church in Venice. Nevertheless, his legendary interest in all instrumental families included his writing works for plucked string instruments. Vivaldi trained for the priesthood, taking his Holy Orders in 1703, the same year he became maestro di violino at the Pio Ospedale Pietà, an orphanage and renowned conservatory for girls in Venice. Though his later activities as a composer and impresario occasioned much travel, Vivaldi retained his association with the Pietà throughout his life and many of his instrumental works were designed for his students there.

Four of Vivaldi’s works involve lute—the Concerto in D major for two violins, lute, and basso continuo; the Concerto in D minor for viola d’amore, lute, and basso continuo; and two Trio Sonatas (C major and G minor) for lute, violin, and continuo. The first, third, and fourth of these were dedicated to Bohemian Count Johann Joseph von Wrtby (1669–1734), prompting speculation as to what kind of instrument Vivaldi had in mind, since there was a great difference in Austro-German and Italian lutes. It is natural that the lute works are now most often played on the guitar, not only because the guitar sounds similar to the lute and has overshadowed it in popularity, but also because Vivaldi himself frequently suggested such exchanges.

All three movements of the D major Concerto follow the “rounded” type of binary form, in which the opening music returns halfway through the second section, which had begun by introducing various keys and slight manipulations of the musical materials. The first movement is notable for its energetic three-note melodic elaborations and the propulsive repeated notes in the bass line. The lovely slow movement shows a completely different possibility for employing a singing line in dotted rhythms. Vivialdi creates a particularly poignant effect with a “halo” of upper string suspensions (harmonic tensions and relaxations), illuminated by the simple change to straight sixteenth notes from dotted sixteenths. The animated closing movement races along in the rhythm of a gigue, with only brief pauses for breath in the prevailing stream of eighth notes.

© Jane Vial Jaffe

The Day Dawn is based on an old Shetland fiddle tune of the same name, which was traditionally played at the Winter Solstice to mark the dawn of lengthening days. Dedicated to my friend Christine McKemmie, who was living in Shetland when her young daughter Zoe died, the piece symbolizes new beginnings, recalling the sense of calm Chris felt on the day of the funeral, dawning bright after a week of rain.

The work was commissioned in 1997 by Contemporary Music-making for Amateurs.

© Sally Beamish

This work, the only solo mandolin concerto out of the hundreds of concertos Vivaldi composed, was featured in the film Kramer vs. Kramer. It shows that Vivaldi was as capable of instrumentally idiomatic writing in this special case as he was in his more common violin concertos, which often call for unusual techniques and effects. The mandolin part in this concerto is not technically difficult, but it rests attractively beneath the player’s fingers, and the work has often been recorded.

Vivaldi effectively uses melodic profile to draw a contrast between the strings and the serenading mandolin; the orchestral ritornello of the first movement consists of little more than open octaves and fifths, while the mandolin has sprightly melodic material. In one of those clever touches with which Vivaldi’s concertos are replete, however, the two textures are linked together: the ritornello ends with a short cadence in broken thirds, and the soloist begins by repeating the same music, as if a relay runner were receiving the baton from a teammate. The minor-key central movement is a fine example of Vivaldi’s minimalist melancholy, and the finale is a deceptively simple Allegro that lets the soloist unpack the rudimentary melodic inversion upon which the ritornello is based. One of the solo passages seems to refer back to the concerto’s opening movement — an instance of cyclical technique that, if intentional, would place Vivaldi well ahead of his time in this as in so many other things. There also exists a Vivaldi concerto for two mandolins, and mandolinists also sometimes appropriate the more numerous Vivaldi pieces for guitar or lute.

© James Manheim

Schiehallion! takes its title from Edwin Morgan’s poem ‘Caledonia’ in which a wide variety of place-names from around Scotland constitute the surreal and nonsensical text of the poem as though these words form a kind of Scottish dialect in their own right. When the question “and what was the toast?” is posed in the last line of the poem, the celebratory response comes “Schiehallion! Schiehallion! Schiehallion!” in reference to a variant of its English translation: “of the Caledonians.”

This new showpiece for Strings was commissioned by His Majesty King Charles III as part of the Honours of Scotland Ceremony at Edinburgh’s St Giles Cathedral in 2023. His Majesty specially selected three traditional Scottish tunes that have a personal resonance with The King’s connection to Scotland in the form of Dark Lochnagar, Bovaglie’s Plaid and The Flowers of Edinburgh. These tunes form the Scottish musical vernacular of this upbeat piece in a celebratory toast from and “of the Caledonians” who raise a glass and call: “Schiehallion! Schiehallion! Schiehallion!

© Jay Capperauld

Composer Stanley Myers and guitarist John Williams combined to create a memorable soundtrack for this 1978 Vietnam war film directed by Michael Cimino.

The most famous piece of music to feature in The Deer Hunter, which stars Christopher Walken and Robert de Niro as prisoners of war forced to play Russian roulette, is Stanley Myers’ classical guitar piece ‘Cavatina’.

However, despite becoming synonymous with the film and often referred to as the theme from The Deer Hunter, ‘Cavatina’ was not written specifically for it. In fact the first time it appeared in a film was eight years previously, when it was featured on a film called The Walking Stick.

Originally written for piano before classical guitarist John Williams persuaded Myers to rearrange it, ‘Cavatina’ has become a much-loved entry in to the classical guitar repertoire, and one of the defining moments in 1970s film music, but the soundtrack to The Deer Hunter wasn’t released until 1990.

© Classic FM

Violin 1
Simon Blendis
Sijie Chen
Jessica Coleman
Nicoline Kraamwinkel
Ann Criscuolo
Anna de Bruin

Violin 2
Antonia Kesel
Gemma Sharples
Clare Hayes
Konstancja Smolorz
Jeremy Metcalfe

Viola
Jamie Howe
Richard Cookson
Catherine Bradshaw
Jennifer Coombes

Cello
Kate Gould
Sarah Butcher
Ben Chappell

Double Bass
Benjamin Russell
Catherine Elliott

Keyboard
Matthew Brown

Simon joined LMP as leader in 2014. He was a member of the Schubert Ensemble for twenty-three years, from 1995 until the group retired in 2018, leaving a legacy of over 80 commissions, 25 CD recordings and a large library of live performances on YouTube.

Simon is in demand as a guest-leader and has appeared in this role with most of the UK‘s major orchestras. He has also appeared as a guest-director with orchestras such as the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish Ensemble. Since 1999 he has shared the position of leader of Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan, with whom he has recorded Vivaldi‘s Four Seasons for the Warner label. As a soloist he has appeared with orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the RPO and the CBSO.

During the Coronavirus lockdowns Simon spent time researching the light music legacy of legendary violinist Max Jaffa. The resulting CD of 25 lost or forgotten gems from this archive, entitled Love is Like a Violin, was released in July 2022 to critical acclaim, and has already garnered over 4 million streams.

Increasingly sought after as a teacher, Simon is a professor of violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

We are London Mozart Players: the oldest, freshest and most adventurous chamber orchestra in the UK.

Set up over 75 years ago by Harry Blech to perform the works of Mozart and Haydn, our mission has evolved into creating bold, ambitious and accessible musical experiences for all. We are proud to be at the forefront of embedding arts
and culture into the life of communities across the UK and beyond, performing both new works and music that stays true to our roots.

We are based at Fairfield Halls in Croydon and have residencies at St John’s, Upper Norwood, Thaxted Festival and Grayshott Concerts. Jonathan Bloxham has served as our Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor since July 2025. Collaborating with many of the world’s greatest soloists and conductors, our work is made in Croydon and celebrated across the globe.