Fiesta Sinfonica – Opus 12 (1971)

People who are familiar with Patterson’s earlier Twelve Tone mode of composition will be surprised by the tonality and blatant tunefulness of the exuberant work. As with his Horn Concerto, which was first performed at the Nottingham Festival in 1971 by Ifor James and the English Chamber Orchestra, Fiesta Sinfonica has a great rhythmic vitality which in this case contains certain Latin-American influences.

Scored for full orchestra, it demands virtuosic playing from all sections, notably the percussion department who are called upon to play such exotic instruments as bongoes, claves and timbales. The main theme of the pieces is heard in the opening bars, played first by the brass and thrown from one group of instruments to the other, creating an exciting cross-talk punctuated by pounding rhythms. A more relaxed section leads eventually to a boisterous fugue that accumulates each instrument of the orchestra until a massive climax is reached where the percussionists can release all their in hibitions.

Fiesta Sinfonica was commissioned by the Nottingham Festival and is dedicated to the Festival director, Richard Gregson-Williams

copyright – Charles Hine 1972

An introduction to Paul Patterson’s “Fiesta Sinfonica” by Iain Sutherland, when he conducted a performance by the Hertford Symphony Orchestra

“Fiesta Sinfonica” was written in 1972, commissioned by the Nottingham Festival. It has subsequently received many performances, and has been broadcast by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Patterson’s earlier works were in the twelve tone mode of composition, but “Fiesta Sinfonica” is both tonal and tuneful, with distinct Jazz and Latin American influences, which first attracted me to it. However, it is not “laid out” on display, as in the 19th century romantic style, but complex and crowded with incident and detail, requiring the listener to concentrate hard for its seven minutes of duration, in order to appreciate it to the full. It demands virtuoso playing from the orchestra, particularly from the exotic Latin American percussion section, complete with bongoes, maracas, claves and timbales.

The opening “blues” type phrase from the brass section sets the scene, and is quickly taken up by one section after another to the background of pounding percussion, creating the chaotic colours of a South American Fiesta. Halfway through there is a breather from the hurly-burly, with a more relaxed section, but, with the return of the original tempo, we are led to a brilliantly worked fugue based on the blues theme, reaching a massive climax of uninhibited proportions. Finally, the blues theme is triumphantly stated by the trumpets and rounded off by the horns, leaving the final flourish to the bold percussion.

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