Mendelssohn / Bruckner, Markus Stenz
The renowned German conductor Markus Stenz conducts a varied programme featuring much-loved works by Felix Mendelssohn and Anton Bruckner at Venice's charming Gran Teatro La Fenice. This run of concerts highlights the skill of Stenz, who has enjoyed an illustrious career, and includes some of Mendelssohn's and Bruckner's best music. Audiences can expect high-quality renditions of Mendelssohn's Concerto in E minor for violin and orchestra, Op. 64, followed by Symphony No. 7 in E major by the Austrian-born Bruckner.
Each of these concerts opens with the violin concerto that Mendelssohn wrote over the course of six years from 1838. Now widely regarded as a standard work for violinists, this Romantic-era concerto premiered in the German city of Leipzig on 13 March 1845. At the time of its debut, Mendelssohn was sick and, therefore, the orchestra had to be conducted by a stand-in, the Danish composer Niels Gade. The opening movement is played fast and builds with a stunning cadenza. The initial key of E minor moves to C major for the slower, middle movement although it sometimes shifts into A minor during its moodier passages. The final movement is in E major and features some impressive trumpet arrangements despite being a piece that makes the violin its star.
Bruckner's Seventh Symphony is a work in four movements. Composed from 1881, it was first performed on 30 December 1884, also in Leipzig. It is widely regarded as one of the composer's best symphonic works, alongside his Eight Symphony. The opening movement features a memorable melody in E major before the second movement, which is reminiscent of Richard Wagner in several respects, shifts the music into C# major. A scherzo that begins in A minor but which ends in F major follows. The final movement is a fitting summing up of the music that has come before and, like the first movement, opens with some distinctively played tremolo strings.
Born in 1965, Markus Stenz's musical career has comprised several notable positions including Principal Guest of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. As well as conducting orchestral music, Stenz is an operatic conductor. Indeed, he made his operatic debut at the Gran Teatro La Fenice in 1988. Audience-goers can expect a lively interpretation of both pieces when they attend these spectacular concerts.