Part of the Roman River Festival 2024 - See all concerts here.

Lose yourself in two of the romantic canon's most ravishingly lyrical works, Rachmaninov Second Symphony and Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, played by The Wild Arts Ensemble with the outstanding young soloist Hana Chang, conducted by Orlando Jopling 

Described as a masterful storyteller whose playing is "impeccable, authentic, and gracious”, we are delighted to welcome violinist Hana Chang to her first Roman River Festival performance. At just 21 years old, Hana is a rising star on the international scene. Closer to home, she is a member of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists 24-26, a Borletti-Buitoni Fellowship 2024 Award artist, and has been nominated as one of Classic FM’s Rising Stars of 2024.

Neither of this evening’s pieces could be anything other than Russian, either in sentiment or melodically. For both composers, major life crises and emotional trauma had been frustrating their creative endeavours shortly before they gave the world these much-loved works which take us to the depths before lifting us up to joyous emotional heights.

Tchaikovsky wrote his Violin Concerto in the Spring of 1878 having fled to Lake Geneva from his disastrous marriage. During a visit from the violinist Iosif Kotek, who had been asking him for a violin concerto for some time, the composer was “overcome by that unfathomable burning inspiration” and, in just one month, wrote this masterpiece of unique penetrating beauty, full of the earthy sounds of Russian folk music and one of his most brilliant and cheerful works. After a bumpy start, with soloists complaining that the acrobatics and panache it required made it too difficult to play, and audiences unsure of how to receive it, it his now one of the composer’s most beloved works.

Rachmaninov was often seen as Tchaikovsky’s most worthy successor and he too had sunk into paralysing depression following the brutal critical reception of his First Symphony, declaring, “To hell with them! I do not know how to write symphonies, and besides, I have no real desire to write them!” Little did he know that a decade later, shortly after the start of a new century, he was to start writing another symphony in secret which was to become his largest orchestral composition and would come to be seen as quintessential “love music”, an eloquent outpouring of soulful, personally revealing melancholy - expressed through rich harmonies and exultant melodies - leading to an exuberant conclusion.

PROGRAMME

Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D major, op.35

Rachmaninov Symphony no. 2, op.27

Doors open at 5pm for a 6pm start. Please allow ample time for parking.

Hana Chang violin 
Orlando Jopling conductor
The Wild Arts Ensemble 

Tickets £25 – £50 (£15 for under 30s)

Reduced visibility seats available.