Archived performance
Performance details
Thursday 26 September 2019 at 7.30pm
Melbourne Recital Centre
Friday 27 September 2019 at 7.30pm
Robert Blackwood Hall
About this performance
Program
Rossini L’Italiana in Algeri Overture
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
Vivaldi Concerto for 2 violins in A minor
Schubert Symphony No.3
Featuring
Dale Barltrop director / violin
Ray Chen violin
The concert
Ray Chen is Australia’s golden boy of the violin, winning hearts around the world with his incredible skill and charming stage presence. Chen joins the MSO for Mendelssohn’s famous Violin Concerto, but not before Rossini’s sparkling overture to his opera The Italian Girl in Algiers sets the tone for this high-energy program.
The first movement of Mendelssohn’s concerto starts with a theme that tormented the composer for years, before he could begin serious work on the piece. It’s followed by a lyrical andante movement, and then a finale that will bubble and fizz like champagne in Ray Chen’s very capable hands.
Then it’s double trouble with a touch of Venetian zest, as Chen teams up with the orchestra’s Concertmaster Dale Barltrop in a concerto for two violins by Vivaldi.
How else can you finish such a vibrant concert, than with Schubert’s Third Symphony, its sunny D major charm and dizzying tarantella finale?
Pictured: Ray Chen | Image credit: Tom Doms
