Nanaimo’s chamber orchestra will perform two mid-Island concerts to welcome the oncoming change of seasons.
Violinist and Gabriola Island resident Patricia Armstrong will appear as the orchestra’s guest artist for the Four Seasons performance in early March.
According to a release, Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is a set of four concerti that provide a musical narrative describing the elements of the seasons of the year; representing flowering creeks, singing birds, a shepherd and his barking dog, buzzing flies, storms, drunken dancers, frozen landscapes and warm winter fires. Vivaldi’s work was composed between approximately 1718-1720 when he was the court chapel master in Mantua, Italy.
The release also noted other works in the program will include Tomaso Albinoni’s Sinfonia for Four, Edward Elgar’s Elegy for Strings, Max Reger’s Lyric Andante and Haydn Wood’s Cities of Romance.
“The Sinfonia is one of many composed by Albinoni in the early 1700s. A short symphony, typical of the time, it comprises three movements: Allegro, Adagio and Allegro,” noted the release. “Elgar wrote Elegy for Strings in 1909 as a commemorative piece, which is still played annually in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, at an evensong service in memory of members who have died during the preceding year. Lyric Andante (Liebestraum) is a beautiful post-romantic short piece composed by Reger in 1898. Wood characterizes each of Budapest, Venice and Seville in his suite, Cities of Romance.”
The guest artist, Armstrong, was an early member of the Canadian orchestra Tafelmusik and subsequently played with Victoria Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, CBC Radio Orchestra and Vancouver Opera Orchestra. She is currently a violinist with the Vancouver Island Symphony.
The Nanaimo Chamber Orchestra’s Four Seasons concerts will be performed at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on Departure Bay Road in Nanaimo on Saturday, March 2, at 2:30 p.m.; and at St. Mary’s Church on Fourth Avenue in Ladysmith on Sunday, March 3, at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.nanaimochamberorchestra.com.
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