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Weill and Mendelssohn

Wednesday 22nd April 2009 at 7.30pm
Assembly Rooms, Derby
Tickets: £17 to £26
Box Office: 01332 255800
Online booking available

Principal Conductor André de Ridder

The Orchestra continues its exploration of Mendelssohn in this, the 200th anniversary of the year of his birth, with a programme which also features the work of Kurt Weill, who fled Germany during World War 2 in order to escape Nazi persecution and interference with his music.

Weill's Symphony No.2 was composed while living in Paris in 1933-4, the Jewish composer and his wife who he twice married having fled Nazi Germany (he would subsequently take up residence in America for the rest of his life) to escape the oppression and artistic interference to which his works had been subjected there. Quoted with saying: "I have never acknowledged the difference between 'serious' music and 'light' music.", Weill's compositions were predominantly for musical theatre and songs - the Symphony No.2 being his final truly orchestral work.

After the interval, we have Mendelssohn's Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream, which spanned two decades in compositional terms. The Overture of 1826 became so popular and his fame thereby increased that he was subsequently requested by the King of Prussia to write the music for a stage production of the play, which he completed in 1843.

Join André de Ridder and sinfonia ViVA for these two evocative works.

Supported by Rolls-Royce plc and Arts Council England

Photo credits: André de Ridder (Marco Borggreve)