Pacific Chamber Orchestra (PCO), Lawrence Kohl, Music Director, is presenting Bruch Violin Concerto #1 in g minor with violinist Livia Sohn, Mendelssohn Symphony #3 “Scottish” and Fanny Mendelssohn Overture for Orchestra Saturday April 27, 7:30pm Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church and Sunday, April 28, 3:00pm Bankhead Theater, Livermore.
About Livia Sohn Livia Sohn’s prolific career includes performances with renowned US orchestras in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Boston; in Europe with orchestras in Berlin, Budapest, Prague; and internationally in Asia, South America, China, and Africa. Opus Magazine described Ms. Sohn as, “a stunning and compelling musician. The Strad Magazine notes, “Sohn possesses a remarkably lithe and transparent tone of exceptional purity…. Even when under the most fearsome technical pressure at high velocity, every note rings true with pinpoint accuracy.” The Post and Courier adds, “Music-making does not get any better than this.”
According to Conductor Lawrence Kohl. “Ms. Sohn appeared with PCO some years back in a fabulous performance of Mozart’s Symphony Duo Concertante. Her performance of Bruch’s Violin Concerto #1 in g minor will sing with the verve of the early Romantic Era explorations and with the lyric and passion of the later era’s greatest compositions.” A Podcast interview with Livia about the Bruch, growing up in craft and of the necessity of classical music in our lives today can assessed at PodcastsByKohl.com
Enjoy this amazing encore performance showcasing Livia’s amazing pyrotechnics, charm and humor.
Also on the program is Felix Mendelssohn’s evocative Symphony #3 “Scottish” and the wonderful Overture for Orchestra by his sister Fanny Mendelssohn. The Scottish Symphony was composed after Felix’s sojourn to Scotland in which he wrote home to Fanny, “The chapel beside it has lost its roof and is overgrown with grass and ivy, and at that broken altar Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. Everything there is ruined, decayed and open to the clear sky. I believe that I have found there today the beginning of my Scotch Symphony.” The opening movement is a touching vision of the old world; the finale bright, glowing and happy. The entire work is a tone poem symphony as each and every movement flows directly into the next without pause.
Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn grew up in a well-to-do home where they both studied under the finest composition teachers of the day. She remarked about her younger brother Felix, “I have always been his only musical adviser, and he never writes down a thought before submitting it to my judgment.” We are fortunate to have her exploration into the orchestral world with her imaginative and forward look Overture. There are a handful of other notable instrumental works; a piano trio, a piano quartet and four Cantatas. Fanny was most comfortable writing for the piano and lieder. There are 125 pieces for piano and over 250 songs!
