BRITTEN SINFONIA AT PEASMARSH FESTIVAL
Performers
- Anthony Marwood
- violin
- Richard Lester & Kate Gould
- cellos
- Zoë Beyers
- violin/director
Programme
- Vivaldi
- Concerto for two cellos in G minor
- Schubert
- Symphony No. 5
- Pēteris Vasks
- 'Distant Light' concerto for violin
Britten Sinfonia returns to Peasmarsh Chamber Music Festival for a luscious programme of music spanning nearly 300 years.
Vivaldi's double cello was most likely written during his time working at the Ospedale della Pietà in the 1720's - a Venetian orphanage for girls renowned for it's musical training. It's easy to imagine that the virtuosic passages would have been inspired by the playing of his students there.
Schubert’s Fifth Symphony (1816) was written when the composer was just 19. Having spent most of his short musical life deeply influenced by his great idol Beethoven, instead he began to turn towards the serene 18th century models set by Mozart and Haydn for his new work.
In contrast, Vasks composed his violin concerto Distant Light (1996-7) for Gidon Kremer, who was instrumental in opening western ears to Baltic composers’ music. Its soulful, melancholic passion remains key to Vasks’s ongoing impulse to re-ignite the connections with nature that he sees being lost today.
