Hallé Orchestra – Mendelssohn violin concerto

Wednesday 19 May 2021 – 2.15pm
Thursday 20 May 2021 – 7.30pm
Sunday 23 May 2021 – 4pm

Approximate running time – 120 minutes

Prokofiev – Symphony No.1, ‘Classical’
Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto in E minor
Schumann – Symphony No.1, ‘Spring’

Conductor
Tomás Hanus

Featuring:
Eldbjørg Hemsing, violin

Tomá Hanus, Welsh National Opera’s Music Director, returns to the Hallé with Prokofiev’s ‘Classical’ Symphony, his witty and affectionate ‘take’ on Haydn’s symphonies, heard through 20th-century ears. A household name in her native Norway, Eldbjørg Hemsing made her concerto debut aged only 11. She plays Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, its popularity assured through an instantly memorable, impassioned opening, which, according to the composer, constantly ran through his head and gave him no peace until he’d completed it. It was Mendelssohn who conducted the premiere of Schumann’s First Symphony, whose sunny personality arose from the ‘longing for spring’ which inspired its creation early in the year.