Semester 1 Recital - 22nd June

The Concerto in E major is difficult to date. As so often, we are missing any sources written by Bach himself. Like the 'Brandenburg' concertos, it probably originates from Köthen, a vibrant court where the tone was set by instrumental music. But it could also date from Leipzig, where from 1730 Bach led the local Collegium Musicum, with whom he performed a lot of secular music in the famous Café Zimmermann. Whatever the case may be, we can assume that the scanty couple of surviving violin concertos are merely the tip of the iceberg, and that numerous other orchestral works have been lost or still await discovery.

Bach based the piece on the Venetian concerto model in three movements, but gave it his own twist, as each movement has an un-Italian characteristic. For instance, the Allegro was given an ABA structure, like most of the Baroque arias, whereby the first section returns with great embellishment after a contrasting second section. And like in many of Bach’s arias, the soloist frees himself from the ensemble ‘before his turn’, in brief anticipation of his solo.

The final movement resumes the exuberant mood of the opening to the rhythm of a passepied – a three-part Baroque dance. It is a refrain with couplets, a rondo, which is a form seldom seen in concertos. It is perfectly proportioned. The refrain and the couplets consist of sixteen bars, except for the last couplet, which is twice as long. Bach uses this extra space to follow a remote harmonic path, repeating the catchy theme once again, after a breathtaking gap.

Featuring Roy Zhang as soloist

Roy is currently in year 7 at Carey Grammar.

Roy started learning the violin in 2018 in Prep. (Audrey To 2018 - 2019) (Christine 2020 - 2022) (Trent 2023 - present)

Roy was a member of the Junior Chamber Orchestra since 2021 and the joined the Senior Chamber Orchestra in 2024

Roy's past solo performances include:

- Eisteddfod prize winner - Millionaires hoedown by Herman Clebanoff (2023)

- Eisteddfod prize winner - 'Czardas' by Vittorio Monti (2024)

- Soloist (Violin 1) - Vivaldi Violin Concerto for two violins RV 522 (2024)

- Soloist - Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi (Summer III: Presto) (2024)

Roy performs on a violin made in 1923 by Ernst Heinrich Roth.

Vivaldi's RV 424 is one of his most technically involved cello concertos. The soloist is required to play incredibly fast semiquaver triplets and notes an octave and a half above middle C. The ritornellos on the outer movements include voice crossings in the violins and violas, making for an interesting texture. 

Featuring Hana Takahashi-Chan as soloist

Hana is currently in year 9 at Vermont Secondary College.

Hana was a member of the Junior Chamber orchestra from 2017 - 2021 and has been a member of the Senior Chamber orchestra since 2022.

Hana started learning in 2015 in Prep. (Trent 2015 - present)

Hana performs on a 2021 model 500 KG cello made from European tonewood.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847) was considered by many of his time to be a prodigy comparable only to the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Besides being a brilliant piano virtuoso, his composition took a firm step forward in musical development. 

In the period when this concerto was composed (from 1821 to 1823 while aged 12 to 14) Mendelssohn composed twelve string symphonies. At the age of eleven, he had written a trio for strings, a violin and piano sonata, two piano sonatas and the beginning of a third, three more for four hands, four for organ, three songs (lieder), and a cantata.

Mendelssohn wrote this violin concerto for Eduard Rietz (eldest brother of Julius Rietz), a beloved friend and teacher who later served as concertmaster for Mendelssohn's legendary performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion, which has been thought to have resurrected Bach in the public image.

When Mendelssohn died, his widow gave the manuscript of the long forgotten concerto to Ferdinand David, another close friend of Mendelssohn's and a leading violinist of the period, who in fact had premiered his Violin Concerto in E minor.

Featuring Oliver Lu as soloist

Oliver is currently in grade 6 at Blackburn Lake Primary School.

Oliver started learning the violin in 2021 in grade 3. (Rebecca Abramoff 2021) (Trent 2022 - present)

Oliver will attend Kingswood College in 2025 on a music scholarship. 

Oliver has been a member of the Junior Chamber Orchestra since 2021.

Olivers's past solo performances include:

- Eisteddfod prize winner - Chanson Triste by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (2022)

- Eisteddfod prize winner - Theme From Schindler’s List by John Williams (2023)

- Soloist (Violin 2) - Vivaldi Violin Concerto for two violins RV 522 (2024)

Oliver performs on an Italian trade violin made in c. 1880

On May 1 1761, Haydn got the appointment that made his career when Prince Nicholas Esterházy hired him as his vice-Kapellmeister. The Prince had another promising young musician, Alois Luigi Tomasini (1741 - 1808), hired at the age of 16 as a valet du chamber, but also such a fine violinist that Nicholas sent him to Venice to receive the best violin training. Haydn shrewdly wrote as many as four concertos for Tomasini to show their boss that his trust in both of them was well-founded. (Both served the Esterházy family for life with Tomasini the trusted concertmaster of Haydn's orchestra.)

In 1949 Haydn scholar H.C. Robbins Landon discovered the manuscript of this concerto in the Abbey of Melk. It was written no later than 1771, and in most commentators' estimation is the equal of the D Major Cello Concerto -- in other words, the first great violin concerto of the classical age. In 1961, another copy of this concerto surfaced in the Marcello Library of Venice. It posed an editorial problem: while the Venice copy was obviously meant for the use of a string orchestra, the Melk manuscript had an incomplete horn part and mentions an oboe part (though none was found). Fortunately, the manner in which those instruments were used at the time was rather standardised, and so Anton Heiler and Robbins Landon were able to reconstruct them.

In this concerto Haydn shows some of the innovations he was bringing to the symphony form at the same time. Although it can be said that there is one predominant theme in the first movement (Moderato), Haydn varies it to produce a version that serves as a contrasting second theme group. Haydn observes a standard format of exposition without a solo part, then another with the solo, but he also adds new material for the soloist during this section. The violin leads off a creative development section.