Fri 10 Sep 2021
Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony
Programme
WA Mozart La Clemenza di Tito Overture
Béla Bartók Divertimento for String Orchestra
Blasio Kavuma Si(g)nification on Mozart's Overture to 'Clemenza di Tito' (world premiere)
Felix Mendelssohn Symphony No.3 'Scottish'
Gábor Takács-Nagy conductor
Nonclassical Associate Composer Blasio Kavuma premieres a brand new work with the Southbank Sinfonia.
With a regal flair, trumpets and drums announce the arrival of Mozart’s opera La Clemenza di Tito. Although written in the final year of his life, in ill health and under immense time pressure, Mozart triumphs with an overture fit for an Emperor.
Bartok’s Divertimento is music which delights in contrast. Through a series of games between soloists and the full ensemble, a dialogue beginning bounces back and forth in a rally of musical invention. However, a dark shadow hangs over the piece as a divided Europe begins to seep into Bartok’s composition; with this his final work before fleeing Hungary on the eve of it joining the Axis alliance.
“I’M GOING TO SCOTLAND”, the enthusiastic Felix Mendelssohn inscribed in capital letters to his friend in London. And when he got there the young composer made note of what he saw not in words, but with music – his notes tracing the majestic Scottish Highlands.