Love is in the Air

• Glazunov – Winter and Spring (from The Seasons)
• Glazunov – Concerto for Alto Saxophone
• Prokofiev – Fifth Symphony

In February we are still in the season of winter but anticipating the brighter days of spring so we will bring you these two seasons musically depicted in Glazunov’s sumptuous score, originally conceived for a ballet premiered in St Petersburg. Glazunov was criticised by younger composers, such as his pupil Prokofiev, for being old fashioned and he confounded some of this criticism when he wrote his Saxophone Concerto in 1934. The saxophone was still at that time an unfamiliar instrument in the orchestral repertoire but the famous German Saxophonist Sigurd Rascher apparently ‘hounded’ Glazunov to write him a piece. The concerto was finished in June 1934 although the composer did not live to hear a public performance. The concerto is in a single movement with lush accompanying orchestral texture for the solo saxophone. We are delighted to invite Saxophonist Rob Burton to join the orchestra in performing this stunning piece.

Serge Prokofiev, Glazunov’s critical pupil, was born in a part of Russia which is now Ukraine. He studied at the famous St Petersburg Conservatoire and wrote his Fifth Symphony in B flat major after relocating from Paris to Moscow for financial reasons. The symphony was a fluent composition, completed in one month in 1944. Prokofiev declared the symphony to be "a hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit."

About Rob Burton

British Saxophonist Rob Burton won the Woodwind Category Final of BBC Young Musician 2018 and went on to secure a place in the Grand Final at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, where he performed as concerto soloist with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Since then, he has performed with some of the UK’s leading orchestras, such as Britten Sinfonia and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra as well as at prestigious international festivals, including Leicester, Cheltenham, Harrogate, and Oundle International Festivals. Featured as one of Classic FM’s “Stars of Tomorrow”, he has performed in prestigious London venues including Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, St. James’ Piccadilly, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

Rob previously studied Classical Saxophone on a full scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, and as Sax.co.uk scholarship holder at the Junior Guildhall School of Music, during which he was Principal Saxophone with the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain. He has recently completed his Masters degree at the Zürich University of the Arts and has been accepted on the prestigious Advanced Diploma degree at the Royal Academy of Music, starting September 2024.

https://www.robburtonsax.co.uk/