The Fidelio Orchestra make their debut at Milton Court Concert Hall, together with Latvian violin virtuoso Kristīne Balanas.
For anybody who has never heard Prokofiev’s second violin concerto, we are humbled to have the opportunity of sharing it with you. Few other pieces showcase both the lyrical and the percussive features of the violin as this one. The second movement leaves us all wondering whether such sound is not coming directly from Heaven. With its folk Russian theme that opens the first movement and the castanets that accompany the main motif of the finale, this concerto is capable of bringing together different cultural influences at a time, the mid-1930s, in which Spain, the country that saw its premiere, was deeply shocked by a violent civil war opposing fascism and communism.
A legendary aura surrounds Strauss’s gigantic tone poem, written just before the turn of the century, when the composer was barely thirty-four. The many characters scattered throughout the piece have made people speculated that Strauss was picturing himself as the hero in question. From the heroic opening theme, repeated relentlessly for the first three minutes, to the annoying critics — characterfully pictured by the woodwinds and lower brass — to the imposing figure of his wife and the life exploits eventually culminating in a peaceful retirement, the perfect image of the fin-de-siecle bourgeois man. While the biographical references are obvious, this extraordinary work can well be seen as a testament to the heroic figure of the artist in a society more and more concerned with appearance, rather than a self-celebratory heirloom by a skilled composer.
Little could one imagine that the young Richard was going to go on writing fifteen operas over the following forty-five years, and become known to posterity arguably more for his operatic output than for its early symphonic works.
S. Prokofiev Violin Concerto in G minor No. 2 Op. 63
R. Strauss Ein Heldenleben Op. 40
Fidelio Orchestra
Kristīne Balanas, violin
Raffaello Morales, conductor
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Wines and drinks
Available to purchase on the night from the bar at the venue.
Donations
Please donate to the Fidelio Orchestra so we can keep providing meaningful opportunities to young professional musicians. Anything you can give would be greatly appreciated.
