Sir Malcolm Arnold Peterloo Overture

Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold, CBE (21 October 1921 – 23 September 2006) was an English composer. His output of works features music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music for brass band and wind band. He also produced scores for more than a hundred films, among these The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won an Oscar.WIKIPEDIA

  Malcolm Arnold Peterloo Overture...
Peterloo is the derisive name given to an incident that happened on August 16th, 1819 in St Peter’s Fields Manchester, when an orderly crowd of some 80,000 people met to hear a speech on political reform. On the orders of the magistrates they were interrupted by the yeomanry attempting to seize the banners they carried, and to arrest their speaker, Henry Hunt. Cavalry were sent in, and eleven people were killed and four hundred injured in the ensuing panic. This overture attempts to portray these happenings musically, but after a lament for the killed and injured, it ends in triumph, in the firm belief that all those who have suffered and died in the cause of unity amongst mankind, will not have died so in vain. from notes by Malcolm Arnold

 VIDEO: This performance at the opening concert of the Laredo Phil's 34th Season was dedicated to the memory of the conductor's brother, Finbarr Townsend who passed away June 27, 2013.