Looking back at the history of music and creating something new on this basis – composers have often attempted this with great success. Igor Stravinsky, for example, used a kind of musical magic wand to touch music that was then covered with the dust of the archives. The Canadian Vivian Fung follows a similar path and melts together baroque sounds with contemporary tones in a "compositional water bath". Mendelssohn, the great rediscoverer of Bach, did not become baroque in his violin concerto, but created a score of "classical" elegance. Finally, Mozart, who, as is well known, greatly admired Handel's music, used the three-part form for his "Prague" symphony, which – what a wonderful coincidence – comes from Naples, the setting of Pulcinella-Ballets. Entirely in the spirit of the present, the New Zealand conductor Gemma New will rehearse these four works for Bern. She is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Principal of the Orchestra in Hamilton, Canada. For Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, she finds another counterpart alongside the Bern Symphony Orchestra in the young German violinist Tobias Feldmann.
Program:
Igor Stravinsky, Pulcinella Suite
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64
Vivian Fung, Baroque Melting - European Premiere
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphony in D major, K. 504