Mozart in Worcester with Zoë Beyers
3:00pm
10th October 2021
Swan Theatre, The Moors, Worcester WR1 3ED

Programme

Mendelssohn  Hebrides Overture
Mozart  Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major ‘Turkish’, K. 219
Mystery piece – TBA on the night!
Schubert  Symphony No. 3, D. 200

Artists

English Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Kenneth Woods
Soloists: Zoë Beyers (Violin)

About this Concert

The ESO returns to Worcester's Swan Theatre with a programme of music which were all created by composers in their youth. In 1829, the 20 year old Felix Mendelssohn travelled to the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides west of the Scottish mainland and visited Fingal's Cave where, in a note to his sister, Fanny, he wrote “In order to make you realize how extraordinarily the Hebrides have affected me, the following came into my head there.” The work was completed on 16 December 1830 and was originally entitled Die einsame Insel (The Lonely Island). However, Mendelssohn later revised the score and renamed the piece Die Hebriden (The Hebrides). The final revision was completed by 20 June 1832. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart travelled to Italy with his father, Leopold, between 1769 and 1773, where the young Wolfgang met Pietro Nardini who was one of Italy's finest violin virtuosi at the time, and also befriended Thomas Linley, a young Englishman and gifted student of Nardini. Mozart not only increased his interest in perfecting his own violin playing but also started to compose seriously for the violin which resulted in him composing five concertos for violin and orchestra between April to December 1775, aged 19. The concert will end with Schubert's Symphony No.3, which was written in 1815 when Schubert was 18, however, like some of his other symphonies, it was not published during Schubert's lifetime. This symphony is shorter than his first two symphonies however it is notably concise and indicates his intentions and ideas on expanding the scale of the symphony.

About the Soloist – Zoë Beyers

South-African born Zoë Beyers has established a reputation as one of thefinest violinists of her generation. She is based in the UK and performs as soloist, chamber musician, director and orchestral leader across the world. 2018’s BBC Proms saw Zoë lead the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo and Karina Canellakis, the BBC Philharmonic under Juanjo Mena and give two performances of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat with the Hebrides Ensemble. In 2020, she also took on the role of Leader with the BBC Philharmonic, a position she holds currently with her role at the ESO. Since her solo debut aged eleven with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under Paavo Järvi, she has performed as soloist with many distinguished conductors throughout Europe and Africa.