PROGRAM
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, Concerto No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 8, RV 297, „Winter" (L’inverno)
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, Op. 71 – excerpts
FEATURING
Lena Sophie Lochmann - violin
Many composers have used music to depict the joys and beauties of winter. The most famous piece, The Four Seasons, was composed by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), who used music to depict the natural phenomena that accompany the four different seasons (e.g. summer showers, snowfall), and the related typical human activities (e.g. harvest, hunting). The Four Seasons is a group of four beautiful violin concertos. The fourth violin concerto, "Winter", evokes snowfall, people shivering in the cold, the pleasure of listening to the sound of raindrops from a heated room, the joys of ice-skating and the chill of the wind – in short, the joys of winter. Christmas is inherently connected to winter, which is why we are presenting the most beautiful excerpts from The Nutcracker, a ballet by the great Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), set at Christmas time. The program will be conducted by the orchestra's chief conductor, Róbert Farkas, who will also talk about the pieces.