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sinfonia ViVA with Antje Wiethass

Sunday 1st February 2009 at 7.30pm
Curve, Leicester
Tickets: £8 Under 18s; £16 Groups of 15+, Over 60s, 18–26 year olds; £19 Standard
Box Office: 0116 242 3595
Online booking available

Antje Weithaas, Violin - photo credit Marco Borggreve

sinfonia ViVA's debut visit to Curve, Leicester combines traditional and new music in brilliant style in tonight's programme with Principal Conductor André de Ridder and the remarkable Antje Weithaas (violin), one of the most sought-after soloists and chamber musicians of her generation.

The concert opens and ends with two works by Mendelssohn, spanning the composer's orchestral symphonic output in this the 200th anniversary year of his birth. The evening commences with his Symphony No.1, composed in 1824 when he was just 15, his first symphony for a full orchestra, which came on the heels of no less than 12 symphonies for strings alone produced over the previous three years. We end the evening with Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor Op 64, his final orchestral work, for which 6 years passed from its original composition until its premiere in 1845. Nevertheless, it was an instant success and has since become a much-loved part of the standard repertoire for both concert-goers and accomplished violinists the world over.

In between, as part of sinfonia ViVA's Orchestral Shorts series of new commissions, is the world premiere of two works by Damon Albarn of Blur, Gorillaz and Monkey fame. Writing of Monkey's premiere in The Observer, Kitty Empire enthused that: "Albarn's score not only convinces, it delights... You can hear Damon's distinct melodic sense and favourite chord progressions throughout..."

The programme also features Beethoven's energetic Coriolan Overture of 1807, composed during a period in Beethoven's life which saw a mass of creativity (between 1803-1808) in which he wrote in every genre. It was not actually composed for a performance of the Shakespeare tragedy, but for a revival of a production by one Heinrich Joseph von Collin, a Viennese lawyer and friend of Beethoven.

Supported by Curve, Orchestras Live, The PRS Foundation and Arts Council England

Photo credit: Marco Borggreve.