The Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman is making a welcome appearance in London on Saturday 27 January 2018 when he is the soloist in Leonard Bernstein's Serenade with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conductor David Charles Abell, as part of an all-Bernstein programme which includes the overture to Candide and Songfest.
Serenade, a violin concerto in all but name, is Bernstein's musical philosophical reflection on Plato, in complete contrast to the vibrancy of the Candide overture which reflects the very different work of Voltaire. Rounding off the evening is Songfest, an orchestral song-cycle which uses and extravagant five soloists ( Sophia Burgos soprano,
J’Nai Bridges mezzo-soprano,
Fleur Barron mezzo-soprano,
Nicky Spence tenor,
Nmon Ford baritone) and sets poems ranging from Walt Whitman and Edgar Allen Poe to Gertrude Stein and EE Cummings. A highly eclectic work, Songfest was commissioned for the American bicentennial, Bernstein tried to encapsulate 300 years of American history in one work.
Violinist Vadim Guzman has been playing the Serenade for over 20 years (he debuted the piece playing for Hamburg Ballet) and thinks of it as one of the greatest works of the 20th century. It is based on Plato's Symposium and in each of the movements one of the philosophers (Phaedrus, Aristophanes, Eryximachus, Agathon and Socrates) speaks on love. It is an approachable work, written for soloists, strings, harp and percussion, yet tricky too, Guzman calls the third movement one of the most demanding things he has ever played. (There is an interesting interview with Guzman talking about the Serenade on The Strad website)
The event is part of the BBC's Total Immersion Day on Bernstein, and during the day you can catch the BBC Singers in the Missa Brevis and Chichester Psalms, and musicians from the Guildhall School of Music in smaller scale pieces
Full details from the Barbican website.
Tuesday, 23 January 2018
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts this month
-
What about blowing the box to pieces: composer Eímear Noone on writing for video games, films and TVEímear Noone (Photo: Andy Paradise) Dublin and LA-based composer Eímear Noone is known for her scores for video games, films and TV. She re...
-
Lehár : The Merry Widow - Alex Otterburn, Henry Waddington - Scottish Opera (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic) Lehár: The Merry Widow ; Paula Sides,...
-
Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra I get all sorts of mail, people sending my information on concerts and recordings. Everything gets gl...
-
Gilbert & Sullivan: Trial by Jury - Jamie MacDougall - Scottish Opera (Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic) Gilbert & Sullivan: Trial by Jury ,...
-
Purcell: Dido & Aeneas - Joshua Saunders as Aeneas with the Witches - Guildhall School (Photo: David Monteith-Hodge) Purcell: Dido and...
-
Rameau: Les Indes Galantes - Andreas Wolf, Cappella Mediterranea, Chœur de chambre de Namur, Structure Rualité, Leonardo García-Alarcón - T...
-
Edward Gardner & Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra - Aldeburgh Festival (Photo: Britten Pears Arts) Daniel Kidane: Sirens , Mark...
-
Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus - The Grange Festival (Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith) Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus ; Sylvia Schwartz, And...
-
Handel: Saul - Soraya Mafi - Glyndebourne Opera (Photo: Glyndebourne/ASH) Soprano Soraya Mafi is currently singing the role of Michal in H...
-
Silhouette of the clarinettist Anton Stadler For whom Mozart wrote the Clarinet Quintet David Gow, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Mozart; Peter Ci...
No comments:
Post a Comment