The Orchestra of Situation Opera is proud to present a series of performances at St George's Church, Bloomsbury between October 2008 and February 2009. These concerts will each focus on two or three soloists from within our Orchestra, and will each have free entry for audiences.
The performances will focus on the work of Mozart, but also his contemporaries. As Mozart didn't write concertos for every instrument in the Classical orchestra, we will also play concertos by Telemann, Haydn, Mercadante and Vanhal. Haydn was a huge fan of Mozart, with the two composers frequently exchanging ideas and inspiration, whilst Vanhal played in Mozart's string quartet and has a very similar style of writing.
Each concert will be recorded, with CDs available at the next performance. We are delighted to be featuring soloists from our Orchestra and hope you will be able to join us for these performances.
The complete programme is shown below:
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Concert No.1 - Sunday 26th October 2008 - 4.00pm Joseph Haydn's Violoncello Concerto No. 2 in D major was composed in 1783, for the cellist Antonín Kraft, a cellist of Prince Nikolaus's Esterházy Orchestra. Mozart's Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314 was originally composed probably around 1777 for oboist Giuseppe Ferlendis, then reworked by the composer as a concerto for flute in D major in 1778. This first concert in the series will feature Angelique Lihou and Leo Duarte, respectively Principal Violoncello and Oboe with the Orchestra. |
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Concert No.2 - Sunday 9th November 2008 - 4.00pm Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 3 was completed between 1784 and 1787, and will be played by Michael Fletcher on a reconstruction of a period Natural Horn. Telemann was writing just before Mozart, and is credited with writing this, the first Viola concerto in the repertoire. This concerto is the only piece in the series written purely for string orchestra and harpsichord - meaning the wind players can join the audience! |
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Concert No.3 - Sunday 23rd November 2008 - 4.00pm American trumpeter Brant Tilds will open this concert with the first of two pieces by Haydn - the Trumpet Concerto. Following this, Northern Irish flautist Kathryn Lowry will play the Flute Concerto by Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante - writing just after the death of Mozart. Closing the concert, Dan Burrowes will play Haydn's First Violoncello Concerto, written around 1761–1765 for longtime friend Joseph Weigl, then the principal cellist of Prince Nicolaus's Esterházy Orchestra. |
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Concert No.4 - Sunday 7th December 2008 - 4.00pm Mozart's Concerto for Harp, Flute and Orchestra in C major was written in April 1778 during his sojourn to Paris for the Court of Guines. It was commissioned (although never paid for) from Mozart, by the flautist Duke of Guînes, Adrien-Louis de Bonnières, and his harpist daughter who was taking composition lessons from the composer. |
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Concert No.5 - Sunday 11th January 2009 - 4.00pm Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major (K. 467) was written in 1785. It is one of Mozart's most popular piano concertos, and played by Mariko North on St George's beautiful Bechstein Grand. The Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622 was written in 1791 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler. It consists of the usual three movements, in a fast-slow-fast form and is one of his best known works. Along with the Requiem, the Clarinet Concerto is one of Mozart's final compositions and one of his most beautiful. |
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Concert No.6 - Sunday 25th January 2009 - 4.00pm Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4 in E-flat major was completed in 1786. The manuscript was written with multicolored inks, perhaps in a jocular attempt to rattle the intended performer - Leitgeb. We're sure that Ed won't be thrown by this, however! Like Michael in the second concert, Ed will be playing on a Natural Horn. The second concerto in this concert will be confirmed shortly. |
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Concert No.7 - Sunday 8th February 2009 - 4.00pm Composed in Salzburg in 1775, the Third Violin Concerto is one of Mozart's best known, played today by Edward Walton, and is joined by the wonderfully jolly Bassoon Concerto. As usual, Mozart's idiomatic writing is faultless and this work will be brought to life by Scottish bassoonist Iona Garvie. Written in the first third of his creative output, Bassoon Concerto is rarely heard and unfairly overlooked. We are proud to rectify this! |
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Concert No.8 - Sunday 22nd February 2009 - 4.00pm The Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1785. The first performance was at the Mehlgrube Casino in Vienna on February 11, 1785, with the composer as the soloist. A few days after this performance, the composer's father, Leopold, visiting in Vienna, wrote to his daughter Nannerl about her brother's recent success: [I heard] an excellent new piano concerto by Wolfgang, on which the copyist was still at work when we got there, and your brother didn't even have time to play through the rondo because he had to oversee the copying operation. |
