Beethoven Pastoral
Location: Salisbury
Date: 28-09-2012
Time: 19:30
Venue Details: City Hall
Works Performed
- Dvorak : The Noon Witch
- Bruch : Violin Concerto No.1
- Beethoven : Symphony No.6 "Pastoral"
Performers
- Conductor : Rory Macdonald
- Soloist: Barnabas Kelemen (Violin)
The evening opens with a relatively unknown gem by Antonín Dvořák. His tone poem The Noon Witch is a powerful short work based on Slavic mythology and an impressively precise musical depiction of scenes of quiet homely life on the one hand and the wild, fervent ado of the Noon Witch on the other.
Bruch’s Violin Concerto hardly needs any introduction. The BSO is joined by extraordinary Hungarian violinist Barnabás Kelemen who is going to share his very own rendition of this possibly most famous of all Violin Concertos, which secured Bruch’s career as a composer from a very early age and has never gone out of fashion in the nearly 150 years of its existence.
Much like The Noon Witch, Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony invites the mind to wander and picture scenes of rural bliss. In his only programmatic symphony, all movements have a descriptive heading; indeed, the opening bars feel like an Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the country. Through peaceful and cheerful pastoral scenes and a heavy thunderstorm, the masterwork finally culminates in a celebration of life and nature in the beautifully melodic Shepherds' Song.
