Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams: undoubtedly two of the most beloved and enduringly popular composers from the United Kingdom – and conductor Andrew Manze knows them like no other.

In 1938, Vaughan Williams set some famous verses from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice to music. The original composition of Serenade to Music, written for a symphony orchestra and 16 specific British singers, soon proved difficult to replicate. Vaughan Williams thus provided a few alternatives himself. He preserved the poetry that had so deeply moved inversion, especially in the solo violin and orchestra version of the original version. After that, soloist Michael Barenboim will perform Robert Groslot’s Violin Concerto, showcasing the inventive music of his two English counterparts in this program.

The Enigma Variations, Land of Hope and Glory, the Cello Concerto: Edward Elgar wrote music that is now deeply engraved in the collective memory. Is it how he could encompass his imagination and poetry in his music or the emotional depth that you can scarcely pinpoint but can so deeply move the heart? Whatever his secret, he put his all into his monumental First Symphony.

Groslot’s Violin Concerto occupies a central place in the works of a leading Belgian composer. His experience as a renowned soloist informs his compositions’ instrumental possibilities and playing techniques, which are notable for their refined and rich contrast. Conforming to his preference for one-movement structures, the Violin Concerto is laced with scintillating motifs, both ethereal and playful, as well as complex moods ranging from the dream-like and magical to the dark and violent.

Program: 

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Serenade to Music (orchestral version) (1938)
Robert Groslot, Violin Concerto (2010)
Edward Elgar, Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major, Op. 55 (1908)