Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Augustin Hadelich violin and direction
Strings take centre stage with one of the finest British ensembles, The Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Dates
Puccini I Crisantemi
Paganini Concerto for violin and orchestra No. 4
Tchaikovsky Souvenir de Florence
About
The Academy St Martin in the Fields, founded nearly sixty-one years ago by Neville Marriner, is still one of the most famous chamber ensembles in Britain. It was originally a string ensemble and this is reflected in tonight’s programme. The concert will open with the quartet I Crisantemi by Puccini, a composition in a single movement that takes the form of a captivating musical lament This will be followed by Concerto No. 4 by Paganini, which dates from 1830, but owes its revival to Frenchman Arthur Grumiaux in 1954 after the original manuscript suffered a series of improbable mishaps. To round off the evening, the Academy will be heading to Italy, a country which Tchaikovsky visited for the first time in 1878, and to which he returned twelve years later. In the Tuscan town of Florence, bathed in Mediterranean sunshine, he composed most of The Queen of Spades and the sextet known as Souvenir de Florence, which is fiendishly difficult for each of the six instrumentalists to play.
Production Théâtre des Champs-Élysées