Archived event
Performance details
Thursday 24 March at 7.30pm
Melbourne Recital Centre
Friday 25 March at 7.30pm
Costa Hall, Geelong
Featuring
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Sophie Rowell director & violin
James Crabb classical accordion
Program
Bach Orchestral Suite No.3
Sally Beamish Seavaigers
Elena Kats-Chernin From Anna Magdalena's Notebook
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No.3: Allegro, Adagio
Sally Beamish Brandenburg "Slow movement"
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No.3: Allegro
About this performance
MSO Concertmaster Sophie Rowell leads the Orchestra through a celebration of the incomparable J.S. Bach and the prolific composer’s influence on music of the present day, with Scottish classical accordion virtuoso James Crabb as soloist.
- This coupling of J.S. Bach and English composer Sally Beamish sees James Crabb play the part of continuo, normally reserved for the harpsichord, on the classical accordion. Sophie Rowell play-directs Bach’s Orchestral Suite No.3, lavishly orchestrated for its time, highlighting the composer’s mastery of harmony, rhythm and his sense of fun. This 1730 suite contains one of the most famous and beautiful movements in the entire Bach canon, the Air on the G String.
- James Crabb has been praised world-over for his versatile musicianship, appearing with the London Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Orchestra and countless contemporary ensembles. Among his various Australian performances, Melbourne audiences will remember Crabb conducting and performing in Victorian Opera’s 2013 production of Maria de Buenos Aires.
- The peculiar thing about Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.3 is the lack of a fully developed slow movement. Concerti movements usually follow a fast-slow-fast format, but here Bach differed from the norm, which is how Sally Beamish’s Brandenburg “Slow movement” came to be. Intended to serve as the missing movement in a complete performance, this work was commissioned by the Lautten Compagney Berlin and first performed in 2010.
Duration: approx. 115 minutes including interval
