Violin fireworks and orchestral premieres: Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra

Niccolò Paganini by Ingres (1818)

The Oxford Philharmonic’s Bach Mendelssohn Festival might be over [see my review] but the orchestra’s season in Oxford continues apace.

There is a focus on 19th century violin virtuosi during the orchestra’s April and May concerts as violinist Bomsori Kim, making her UK debut with the orchestra, joins the orchestra for the Fantaisie brilliante on themes from Gounod’s ‘Faust’ by Polish composer and violin virtuoso Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880) [fun fact, his daughter, Regine, wrote songs under the name Poldowski], and the Carmen Fantasy by German composer Franz Waxman (1906-1967) [best known for his film scores including Sunset Boulevard]. 

The orchestra’s leader takes centre stage as the soloist in Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 6 by violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840), a work premiered in Naples in 1819 (the year after Ingres’ portrait of the composer). Though commonly performed in D major, Paganini wrote the orchestral parts in E flat major but wrote the solo part in D major, intending the violinist to tune the violin up a semitone, thus not only making the solo line brighter but enabling violin writing that would be difficult in the tricky key of E flat!

Marcello Palazzo, an alumnus of the orchestra’s Composers’ Workshop will be conducting the world premiere of his tone-poem Sisyphus and in the same concert, Marios Papadopoulos conducts the Piano Concerto No. 1 by the orchestra’s composer in residence, Ukrainian-born, USA-based composer Alexey Shor with soloist Behzod Abduraimov.

Other treats include John Rutter conducting Mozart’s Mass in C minor, and symphonies by Beethoven, Dvorak and Mahler. Full details from the orchestra’s website.