Thursday 02 April 2020

The concert has been cancelled.

"She has a sparkling radiance and world-class top notes," says Leif Ove Andsnes about Caroline Wettergreen, whom we meet as the angel in Beethoven's rarely performed oratorio. The concert begins with Mozart's grandiose Paris Symphony and Fabio Biondi is the soloist in one of Haydn's few surviving violin concertos.

Mozart was 22 years old when, together with his sick mother, he visited Paris in 1778 to open the concert series Concert Spirituel with his new symphony, which impressed the French audience with its grandiose opening and large cast.

Fabio Biondi is the soloist in Haydn's Violin Concerto No. 4, one of the composer's three surviving violin concertos. It was probably written for concertmaster Luigi Tomasini in the Esterhazy orchestra, where Haydn was the conductor. The evening's violinist and conductor is also Italian.

Christ on the Mount of Olives is Beethoven's rarely performed and only oratorio, is linked to Easter and is about Jesus' pain and inner chaos in the last days before the crucifixion. In addition to Jesus, the other soloists are the Seraphim (angel), as God's messenger, and the apostle Peter. The choir has several roles, such as soldiers, disciples and angels.

Fabio Biondi, conductor and soloist
Caroline Wettergreen, soprano (seraph/angel)
Evan LeRoy Johnson, tenor (Jesus)
Yngve Søberg, baritone

Bergen Philharmonic Choir
Edvard Grieg Choir
Collegium Musicum's Choir

Håkon Matti Skrede, choir master
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 31 "Paris"

Joseph Haydn
Violin Concerto in G major

Ludwig van Beethoven
Christ on the Mount of Olives, oratorio