James Ehnes: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto

Program

Ligeti Six Miniatures
Bartók Divertimento for Strings
Beethoven Violin Concerto

The Orchestra takes the lead in a program of bold Hungarian repertoire, followed by Beethoven’s Violin Concerto directed and performed by James Ehnes.

• György Ligeti arranged Six Bagatelles for wind quintet from a cycle of piano pieces he had written years previously, Musica ricercata. Ten members of the MSO woodwind section will perform these vivacious and intricate vignettes to open the program.
• Then, the strings of the MSO take to the stage for Bartók’s Divertimento. Heavily influenced by the rhythms and tonalities of Eastern European folk music, Bartók composed the work in a Swiss Alps chalet owned by the commissioner of the work.
• Beethoven’s Violin Concerto was composed for prodigy Franz Clement. The concerto did not immediately catch on with audiences; it wasn’t until forty years later, when thirteen-year-old Joseph Joachim performed the piece under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn, that it entered the standard repertoire.