(The review of this concert can be found here.)
Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra: “Lefkowitz Plays Mozart”
James Fellenbaum, conductor
Benjamin Britten: Simple Symphony, Op. 4
Mozart: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 3 in G Major, K. 216 (Gabriel Lefkowitz, violin)
Antonín Dvořák: Serenade for String Orchestra in E Major, Op. 22
2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 24, 2016, Bijou Theatre, 803 S. Gay Street, Downtown
Tickets and Information
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When one thinks of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a performer, the imagination immediately leaps to him seated at the piano. The fact is, though, that his earliest childhood performances were as a violinist. And, as an adult, he was most certainly an accomplished one. His father, Leopold Mozart was himself a professional violinist and an accomplished musician, even writing the Essay on the Fundamental Principals of Violin-Playing. Dad was also not one to offer gratuitous praise to his son, yet he once wrote to his son “You yourself do not know how well you play the violin…when you play with energy and with your whole heart and soul, yes indeed, just as though you were the first violinist in all of Europe.”
The final three of five Mozart Violin Concertos, all of which the composer probably wrote with his own performance in mind, probably date to 1775, although dates of first performances are not known. Gabriel Lefkowitz, KSO concertmaster, will take the solo role in a performance of the No. 3, K. 216, in Sunday’s Chamber Classics concert.
Also on the bill are two works for strings, Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony, Op. 4, and Antonín Dvořák’s Serenade for String Orchestra in E Major, Op. 22, a popular and always welcome, but relatively early, work of the Czech composer.
