Curtain Up!
Location: Poole
Date: 17-04-2013
Time: 19:30
Venue Details: Lighthouse
Works Performed
- Korngold : Overture to a Play
- Bruch : Violin Concerto
- Wagner : Die Meistersinger - Three Excerpts
- R Strauss : Der Rosenkavalier Suite
Performers
- Conductor : Andrew Litton
- Soloist: Vadim Gluzman (Violin)
Korngold’s Schauspiel Overture acts as a curtain-raiser to his own glittering career as one of Hollywood’s leading composers. It was the first work that this young prodigy orchestrated himself - he was just fourteen. It is in a late Romantic style, with themes full of energy and character, upbeat and jolly underpinned by superb and imaginative orchestral colour.
Bruch’s first Violin Concerto is one of the most popular and performed of any in the repertoire, beloved by both violinists and audiences alike - but why? Probably because it is perfectly written for the instrument and exploits virtually everything the violin can do in the hands of a master: from dramatic multi-stopped chords to soulful singing in the instrument’s husky low register all the way to its sparkling top. Bruch’s greatest gift was for writing haunting, deeply expressive melodies, and here he makes the gorgeous adagio the work’s centrepiece. The orchestral writing, too, fully complements the solo part with its richness and drama.
Die Meistersinger represents Wagner’s only mature attempt at comic opera. In the excerpts performed, we begin four hours into the opera, with the Prelude to Act III, and music that encompasses darkness and mystery using full-bodied brass and gently glowing strings that rise to a passion. Next is the lively Dance of the Apprentices and finally the grand Procession of the Mastersingers in their full glory.
Der Rosenkavalier was an instant success with its Mozartian farce and flurry of sweet and saucy waltzes. The music abounds in orchestral virtuosity and symphony orchestras had long enjoyed playing selections from the opera before a more established suite finally coalesced and was first performed in 1944, over 30 years after the opera’s creation. It captures the most celebrated and voluptuous moments from the original score, from the opening bold and erotic horn call to its most famous waltzes, full of melodic splendour and harmonic richness.
Pre-Concert Talk: 6.20 - 6.50pm
Free to all ticket-holders. Find out more here.
