Dreams & Romance
Location: Exeter
Date: 16-02-2012
Time: 19:30
Venue Details: The Great Hall
Works Performed
- Schumann : Overture, Scherzo and Finale
- Dvořák : Romance for violin
- Berlioz : Rêverie et Caprice
- Brahms : Serenade No. 1
Performers
- Soloist: Duncan Riddell (Director/Violin)
Schumann composed the Overture as a stand-alone work, later adding the Scherzo and Finale. He continued to revise them over the next twelve years. The Overture opens in dramatic fashion, the mood is dark and challenging until the lively major melody appears, lightening the mood. The Scherzo and Finale are, by turns, majestic, imitative and vivacious.
The Romance is one of the loveliest short violin pieces ever written and has become a popular concert piece. It is a highly characteristic work of Dvořák, combining his deep understanding of classical form and romantic harmony with beautiful flowing Slavonic melody.
Composed in 1841, Rêverie is the only piece of music written by Berlioz in a concertante style. He frequently used it on his concert tours abroad: it was played by several of the leading violinists of the age, among them Ferdinand David, Lipinski, Joachim and Wieniawski.
Brahms wrote this Serenade, this almost Symphony-Serenade, under the spell of Mozart’s serenades and divertimentos, the septets of Beethoven and Hummel, the Schubert Octet, and the Octet and Nonet of Spohr. It is buoyantly fresh, inventive, spirited, and touching, and possesses ahearty rusticity and country-dance bumptiousness.
