David Curtis, Tasmin Waley-Cohen, Huw Watkins, Orchestra Of The Swan

Mozart:
Eine kleine Nachtmusic, K.525
Mendelssohn:
Violin Concerto in D minor
Mendelssohn:
Concerto in D minor for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra
Suk:
Serenade for Strings

Tonight's concert begins with one of Mozart's most popular works, described as 'an occasional piece from a light but happy pen'. Tamsin Waley-Cohen is the soloist in a concerto composed in 1822 when Mendelssohn was 13, but which was only unearthed by Yehudi Menuhin in the 1950s.

There is more melodious music after the interval. Mendelssohn had already composed 100 works by the time his Double Concerto was premiered when he was just 14. It is a piece full of youthful promise, as soloists Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Huw Watkins (himself a composer) will demonstrate tonight. This mood carries on in to Suk's Serenade for Strings, produced whilst studying under Dvorak at the Prague Conservatory.

"The Orchestra of the Swan has always been a sparky band, full of genuine pleasure in its music-making and creating, merely through its body language, an amazing rapport with audiences wherever it performs." - Birmingham Post