Semester 2 Recital - 5th of December

Antonio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) wrote over 350 concertos for solo instrument and strings, with a large number of those being for violin. The "Concerto in B minor, RV 580" is the tenth concerto from Antonio Vivaldi's collection L'estro armonico, Op. 3, first published in 1711. It is a concerto for four violins, cello, and strings, with three movements: Allegro, Largo, and Allegro

Featuring Kate Choi as soloist

- Kate is currently in year 9 at MLC.

- Soloist: Violin Concerto in G major, RV 310 by Antonio Vivaldi with the JCO (2022)

- Soloist: Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K 216 (III. Rondeau: Allegro) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with the JCO (2022)

- Eisteddfod prize winner Souvenir de Sarasate by Wm H. Potstock (2025)

Kate was a member of the Junior Chamber Orchestra since 2020 and joined the Senior Chamber Orchestra in 2022.
Kate performs on her own violin made in 1908 labelled 'Breton Luthier Paris' and a pernambuco bow made by Roderich Paesold.

Featuring Sean Tseng as soloist

- Sean is currently in year 9 at Camberwell Grammar.

- Soloist: Violin Concerto in A major, Hob.VIIa:3 (III. Allegro) by Joseph Haydn with the SCO (2025)

Sean joined the Senior Chamber Orchestra in 2022. 

Sean performs on his own c. 1910 violin labeled, "Nicolaus Amatus Cremone Hieronym filn fect. 1651'' and a W. E. Dörfler pernambuco bow.

Featuring Hazel Shu as soloist

- Hazel is currently in year 7 at Yarra Valley Grammar.

- Soloist: Viola Concerto in the Style of J.C. Bach by Henri Casadesus with the JCO (2022)

Hazel was a member of the Junior Chamber Orchestra since 2022 and joined Senior Chamber Orchestra in 2025.

Hazel performs on her own violin made in 1933 by Ernst Heinrich Roth and a pernambuco bow made by Roderich Paesold.

Featuring Isabelle Kok as soloist

- Isabelle is currently in year 7 at Balwyn High School.

Isabelle was a member of the Junior Chamber Orchestra since 2022 and joined Senior Chamber Orchestra in 2025. 

Isabelle performs on her own violin c. 1900 violin labeled, "Joseph Baldantoni Anconae fecit Anno 1812'' and a W. E. Dörfler pernambuco bow.

Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, MWV O 14, is his last concerto. It was well received at its premiere and has remained as one of the most prominent and highly-regarded violin concertos in history. It holds a central place in violin repertoire and has developed a reputation as an essential concerto for all aspiring concert violinists to master. 

Mendelssohn originally proposed the idea of the violin concerto to Ferdinand David, a close friend and concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Although conceived in 1838, the work took another six years to complete and was not premiered until 1845. During this time, Mendelssohn maintained a regular correspondence with David as he gave him many suggestions throughout the creation process. The work itself was one of the foremost violin concertos of the Romantic era and was influential on many other composers

Featuring Oliver as soloist

Oliver is currently in year 7 at Kingswood College on a music scholarship. 

Oliver started learning the violin in 2021 in grade 3. 

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

Oliver'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)

- Eisteddfod prize winner: Danse Espagnole by Fritz Kreisler (2025)

- Soloist (Violin 2): Violin Concerto for two violins RV 522 by Antonio Vivaldi with the JCO (2023)

- Soloist: Violin concerto in D minor (I. Allegro) by Felix Mendelssohn with the JCO (2024)

- Soloist: Holberg Suite (V. Rigaudon) by Edvard Grieg with the JCO (2024)

Oliver performs on his own c. 1880 violin labeled, "Joseph Gagliano filius Nicolai fecit Neap. 1790'' and a F.N Voirin c. 1850 bow on loan. 

Throughout history Antonio Vivaldi has been known as the red priest (because of his red hair), a teacher, a conductor, a renowned violin virtuoso, and an innovator in the composition of many musical forms and styles, particularly the concerto. In Vivaldi’s time Venice boasted a lively musical scene, from the streets, opera houses, homes of the nobility, to the churches, with the Basilica di San Marco leading the way. Antonio’s father was a violinist there, and the young man sometimes took his father’s place in the orchestra. 

Although half of Vivaldi’s 700 instrumental works featured solo violin, he also provided concertos and sonatas for other instruments and about 50 for pairs of instruments in various combinations.   As with the composer’s other concertos for multiple soloists, the Concerto in B-flat Major for Violin, Cello, and Strings, RV 547 presents the violin and cello soloists as both colleagues and rivals for the spotlight. While some have unfairly opined that Vivaldi wrote the same concerto 500 times, this one demonstrates the magnificence of that “one concerto” and the lasting mark his works have made on the history of the genre.

The Twelve Grand Concertos, Op. 6, HWV 319–330, by George Frideric Handel are concerti grossi for a concertino trio of two violins and cello and a ripieno four-part string orchestra with harpsichord continuo. First published by subscription in London by John Walsh in 1739.

The ninth concerto grosso is the only one undated in the original manuscript. It contains the least quantity of freshly composed material of all the concertos. The second and third movements are reworkings of the first two of Handel's Organ Concerto in F major, HWV 295, known as "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale" because of its imitations of birdsong.

The solo and orchestral parts of the original are intermingled and redistributed in a novel way between concertino and ripieno. The cuckoo effects are transformed into repeated notes supplemented by extra phrases, exploiting the contrasted sonorities of solo and tutti players. The nightingale effects are replaced by reprises of the ritornello and the modified cuckoo. What was the final organ solo, partly ad libitum, becomes a set of virtuoso semiquaver passages, and an extra section of repeated notes precedes the final tutti.