Talented violinist Maria Włoszczowska performs Sibelius with Plymouth Symphony Orchestra

6th March 2020

Photocredit: Olena Tokar

Talented violinist Maria Włoszczowska performs Sibelius with the Plymouth Symphony Orchestra.

Join the Plymouth Symphony Orchestra on Sunday 15 March at 5.30pm in the Public Hall, Liskeard or on Wednesday 18 March at 7.30pm in Plymouth Guildhall for a programme of Bernstein, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky featuring soloist Maria Włoszczowska.

The concert begins with Bernstein’s light-hearted overture from his comic operetta Candide. The overture was received well from the start and has become a popular curtain-raiser, with its distinctive opening fanfare, which serves as the unifying element of the piece. 

Polish violinist, Maria Włoszczowska, joins the orchestra for the popular and passionate Sibelius Violin Concerto. Maria currently lives in London and performs as a soloist and chamber musician worldwide. She is recognised for her versatile musicianship, having won the First Prize and Audience Prize at the XXI Leipzig International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in 2018. Sibelius only wrote one concerto, though he also wrote other works for solo instrument and orchestra. The concerto was so virtuosic that the work’s premiere, in 1903, was a disaster. However, it was much better received after the revisions, which took Sibelius around two years to complete. The concerto is both dramatic and mysterious – at times showy, virtuosic and exhilarating and at others characterized by broad and thought-provoking melodies.

The final work is Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5, a piece which has become one of the most popular large-scale symphonies ever composed. Tchaikovsky approached this composition from a position of self-doubt, after the unsuccessful premiere of his Symphony No.4 ten years previously, and he was determined that No.5 would receive a favourable response. It is an often played and highly regarded work of the Romantic era – Tchaikovsky himself wrote ‘with desire and passion’ on his score. It was premiered in St Petersburg in 1888 with Tchaikovsky conducting and is a powerful, dark and dramatic work.

The Plymouth Symphony Orchestra is one of the longest-established orchestras in the country and attracts many distinguished soloists, with Ralph Kirshbaum, Guy Johnston, Tasmin Little, Joanna MacGregor, Michael Petrov and Savitri Grier amongst the performers to play with the orchestra.

For ticket information please visit www.plymouthsymphony.co.uk.