SOI Autumn 2018 Season: Wagner, Bloch & Tchaikovsky

The concert also features Israeli violinist Nurit Stark who will perform Ernest Bloch’s colourfully-scored violin concerto. The moving music of this rarely-performed concerto shows a wide diversity of styles that inspired Bloch in the creation of his melodies – American Indian, Eastern European and Eastern Mediterranean music, with the Hebraic influence being especially strong.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s third orchestral suite is one of four such works written by him. Of the reception at the premiere, he wrote to his patroness Nadezhda von Meck:  “…. reality far exceeded my expectations. I have never before experienced such a triumph. I saw that the entire mass of the audience was moved, and grateful to me. These moments are the finest adornment of the artist’s life. Thanks to these it is worth living and labouring.” Though lighter in nature, compared with the depths of emotion found in Tchaikovsky’s symphonies, his level of invention is at its most inspired.