大象传媒

Live from Memorial Hall, Marlborough College, Wiltshire

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Jac van Steen returns to the orchestra where he was until recently Principal Guest Conductor, for two great works by Stravinsky in neo-classical style. The chamber concerto "Dumbarton Oaks" was named after the Washington estate where it was first performed in 1938. Commissioned to be in the style of a Bach Brandenburg Concerto, it's full of wit within the ever-changing combinations of instruments Stravinsky pulls out of the tightly-knit ensemble. His one-act ballet Pulcinella was written for the famous impresario Serge Diaghilev nearly twenty years earlier. It's based on trio sonatas Stravinsky believed to be by Pergolesi (some of which may actually have been written by Pergolesi). The Neapolitan tale comes from the Commedia dell'arte, full of the playfulness of romance, which despite its many trials and tribulations, ends happily ever after. In between comes a treasure of the Classical period - Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante. It's an outstanding landmark in the composer's development, which imaginatively pits the solo violin and viola as equal partners, using all the musical skills and inventiveness Mozart had absorbed from his travels throughout Europe.

Stravinsky: Concerto in E flat (Dumbarton Oaks)
Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E flat, K364

8:20 Interval music

8:40 Part Two
Stravinsky: Pulcinella - ballet

Benny Kim (violin)
Philip Dukes (viola)
Elizabeth Atherton (soprano)
Matthew Brook (bass)
大象传媒 National Orchestra of Wales
Jac van Steen (conductor).