Orchestra Wellington presents To The Memory Of An Angel

Orchestra Wellington presents To The Memory Of An Angel

Saturday 10 September, 7:30pm, Michael Fowler Centre

Marc Taddei, Conductor, Wilma Smith, Violin

Wilma Smith to feature in Wellington homecoming concerto performance

Former NZSO concertmaster, Wilma Smith, is back in Wellington next week to perform music fit for Heaven.

Smith will join forces with Orchestra Wellington to perform Berg’s violin concerto dedicated to “the memory of an angel” on Saturday September 10th.

The angel was Manon, daughter of Alma Mahler, who died of Polio aged just 18.

Alma Mahler is also closely connected with the first work on the bill, the opening movement of the 10thSymphony, written by her first husband, Gustav.

“I think Berg's violin concerto is a beautiful and emotionally wrenching work,” Smith says.

“Berg immortalised the girl whose death affected him so deeply in this work which has become firmly established in the repertoire of many soloists.”

Smith’s link to Berg’s violin concerto is through her violin teacher. The piece was commissioned and premiered by renowned Ukranian-born American violinist Louis Krasner who she worked with at Boston’s New England Conservatory.

It was Berg’s last completed work but, sadly, he died four months before Krasner’s premiere in 1936. Smith never saw Krasner play the Berg concerto because he was 80 when they met and he had stopped playing his violin, but she has a recording she treasures.

“Berg quotes an old folk song in both movements - in a slow tempo and using high harmonics in the solo violin, the sweetness and gentle sadness of it mirroring his deep feeling of loss at Manon’s tragic death,” Smith says.

“The concerto ends with the most ethereal ascent in the solo violin supported by beautiful sustained harmony.”

Smith has a very busy freelance working life in Melbourne these days. She has recently been named artistic director for the 2018 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, which she says is a thrill. She'll be charged with setting repertoire for the musicians and selecting the jury.

She particularly enjoys the variety of solos, playing chamber music and teaching, after decade long service in the concertmaster’s chair at the NZSO and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestras.

Smith also has enjoyed longstanding duo partnerships with pianists, Michael Houstoun and Ian Munro. She was founding first violinist of the Lydian String Quartet, prizewinners at Evian, Banff and Portsmouth International Competitions and winners of the Naumburg Award for Chamber Music. Although the Lydian String Quartet was Wilma’s professional focus in Boston, she also worked regularly in the Boston Symphony Orchestra and led the Harvard Chamber Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society and Banchetto Musicale, a period instrument baroque orchestra.

An invitation to form the New Zealand String Quartet took her back to Wellington in 1987 and she was first violinist of the quartet until her appointment as Concertmaster of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in 1993. She was appointed concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2003.

Following a full house for their last concert featuring Mozart’s Requiem, Orchestra Wellington is playing three final works by composers closely associated with Vienna in “To the memory of an angel” onSeptember 10th. Alongside the Mahler “Adagio” from Symphony No. 10 and Berg’s violin concerto, is Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, “The Great”.

For interviews please contact publicist, Penny Miles, 021 644 800.

ORCHESTRA WELLINGTON presents TO THE MEMORY OF AN ANGEL

SATURDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2016, 7:30PM

MICHAEL FOWLER CENTRE, WELLINGTON

GUSTAV MAHLER (1860–1911)

“ADAGIO” FROM SYMPHONY NO. 10

Composed 1910— 1911

ALBAN BERG (1885–1935)

VIOLIN CONCERTO “IN MEMORY OF AN ANGEL”*

Composed 1935

WILMA SMITH VIOLIN

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828)

SYMPHONY NO. 9 IN C MAJOR, “THE GREAT” D. 944

Composed 1828

WILMA SMITH, Violin

MARC TADDEI, Conductor

ends

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