October 14/21 Update: Victoria Chamber Orchestra Plays On
Yariv Aloni will lead the Victoria Chamber Orchestra in launching our 2021/22 season, in a live performance Friday October 22 at 7:30 PM. You can reserve tickets by emailing [email protected]
The concert will also be streamed by Lumera Productions with the cooperation of First Metropolitan United Church, one week later on Friday October 29 at 7:30 PM. You can view the stream from this website.
Four works are featured: Sibelius' Suite Champetre, Nielsen's Little Suite for Strings, the Danish String Quartet's arrangement of Polska from Dorotea, and Strauss's Metamorphosen.
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). Suite Champêtre is beautifully crafted and has many imaginative touches. During the years following World War I, Sibelius was faced with the task of rebuilding both his career and his finances. He focused on producing miniatures. Such is the case with Suite Champêtre, the second of two small orchestral suites published together as Opus 98.
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931). Little Suite for Strings began life as a string quintet. While appraising the score and noting the density of the writing, Gade suggested that it would be more effective for a larger ensemble. It was premiered in 1888 and received with enthusiasm by the audience in Tivoli.
Within the first phrase of the Polska from Dorotea, one can identify the sounds of a fiddle dance. This tune is attributed to fiddler Johan August Andersson (1866-1902) and filled with joyous, intricate interplay. The Danish String Quartet arranged the tune to include accompaniment.
Richard Strauss (1864-1949) composed Metamorphosen in the spring of 1945. The first performance was held in 1946 in Zürich. The score has 23 individual parts and calls for ten violins, five violas, five cellos, and three basses. It was Strauss’s misfortune to live at a time that would pit his creative abilities against his understanding of the larger issues of the world—in a country where music and politics became inseparable at the height of World War II. Despite the ways the war touched his own life and the lives of many people he knew, it was ultimately through music that Strauss came to terms with the devastation of Nazi power. Shortly after the bombing of Dresden, Strauss began this work. It is a requiem of sorts for German civilization. During this time, Strauss was reading the complete works of Goethe, from which he found the title for his composition. Goethe used the word Metamorphosen as a title for two of his late poems.
Sources: ECM review, Terry Barfoot (MusicWeb International), Phillip Huscher (Chicago Symphony), Blair Johnston (All music website), Silvertrust website, Portobello Orchestra website.
The concert will also be streamed by Lumera Productions with the cooperation of First Metropolitan United Church, one week later on Friday October 29 at 7:30 PM. You can view the stream from this website.
Four works are featured: Sibelius' Suite Champetre, Nielsen's Little Suite for Strings, the Danish String Quartet's arrangement of Polska from Dorotea, and Strauss's Metamorphosen.
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). Suite Champêtre is beautifully crafted and has many imaginative touches. During the years following World War I, Sibelius was faced with the task of rebuilding both his career and his finances. He focused on producing miniatures. Such is the case with Suite Champêtre, the second of two small orchestral suites published together as Opus 98.
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931). Little Suite for Strings began life as a string quintet. While appraising the score and noting the density of the writing, Gade suggested that it would be more effective for a larger ensemble. It was premiered in 1888 and received with enthusiasm by the audience in Tivoli.
Within the first phrase of the Polska from Dorotea, one can identify the sounds of a fiddle dance. This tune is attributed to fiddler Johan August Andersson (1866-1902) and filled with joyous, intricate interplay. The Danish String Quartet arranged the tune to include accompaniment.
Richard Strauss (1864-1949) composed Metamorphosen in the spring of 1945. The first performance was held in 1946 in Zürich. The score has 23 individual parts and calls for ten violins, five violas, five cellos, and three basses. It was Strauss’s misfortune to live at a time that would pit his creative abilities against his understanding of the larger issues of the world—in a country where music and politics became inseparable at the height of World War II. Despite the ways the war touched his own life and the lives of many people he knew, it was ultimately through music that Strauss came to terms with the devastation of Nazi power. Shortly after the bombing of Dresden, Strauss began this work. It is a requiem of sorts for German civilization. During this time, Strauss was reading the complete works of Goethe, from which he found the title for his composition. Goethe used the word Metamorphosen as a title for two of his late poems.
Sources: ECM review, Terry Barfoot (MusicWeb International), Phillip Huscher (Chicago Symphony), Blair Johnston (All music website), Silvertrust website, Portobello Orchestra website.