Weber - Overture 'Oberon'
Coleridge-Taylor: Violin Concerto in G minor, Op.80
Brahms: Symphony No.2 2 in D major, opus 73

A horn call of the legendary fairy king Oberon opens the gates to the imagination in Carl Maria von Weber’s last opera overture, composed in London in 1826. Along with the hero and his queen Titania, knights, pirates and an oriental princess. appear in this impressive tone poem.

The Chineke! Orchestra introduces the music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to concert hall for the first time. The son of a doctor from Sierra Leone was a favourite pupil of the great composition teacher Charles Villiers Stanford, encouraged by Elgar and caused a stir at the beginning of the twentieth century as the ‘black Dvořák’. His violin concerto, premiered in 1912, is a highly romantic work, following on from the American Pieces by Dvořák.

Finally, the second symphony of Johannes Brahms leads us to Pörtschach am Wörthersee - a cheerful, buoyant and easygoing local summer retreat that sounds almost like a pastorale by this otherwise serious composer.

Kevin John Edusei makes a welcome return to conduct Chineke! and the violin soloist is Elena Urioste, a BBC Young Generation artist whose playing has been hailed as portraying in equal parts ‘passion, sensuality, brains and humour (Washington Post).

Performers

Chineke! Orchestra
Kevin John Edusei conductor
Elena Urioste violin