Archive for category: News

Two fascinating cultures collide as we bring together the glories and grandeur of 18th century Venice with the sophistication and elegance of the Argentinian Belle Epoque…

Without Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) we probably would not have had theclassical three-movement concerto with its fast-slow-fast plan for solo instrument and orchestra.

Of his 300+ concerti, Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons) is easily the best known. Each of the four concerti explores a different season of the year – complete with poems to heighten the descriptive qualities of the music.

Vivaldi was also known as Il Prete Rosso ‘The Red Priest’due to his distinctive red hair which he inherited from his father. But don’t be fooled by the white hair in this painting – the composer was wearing a wig!

By contrast, without Ástor Piazzolla (1921-1992) we would probably not have the Tango as we know it today. The family of the two-year-old Piazzolla left their home in Buenos Aires for Greenwich Village, Manhattan, where Ástor was to grow up in 1930s New York.

Yet his heart never left the Argentinian spirit – in fact he was to revolutionise it with the creation of Nuevo Tango – where he discovered a unique musical voice at the crossroads of classical, tango and jazz.

Piazzolla’s Estaciones Porteñas, or The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, mirrors Vivaldi’s four concerti with a set of four Tangos, each giving an impression of the four seasons in the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires.

This concert will feature the internationally-celebrated and multi-prize-winning violinist Yury Revich.  A successful composer in his own right, his 2023 his album of music by Chevalier St. Georges was included in the official soundtrack of Netflix series Bridgerton.

‘Full-blooded authority, fleet-fingered dexterity, innate musicality, and substantial accuracy…’ 

The Strad

Vivaldi with Yury Revich

Tuesday 29 April 7.30pm
St George’s Hanover Square, Mayfair, London W1S 1FX

Vivaldi Le Quattro Staggioni
Piazzolla Estaciones Porteñas

London Firebird Orchestra
Principal Guest Conductor Michael Thrift
Violin Yury Revich

SJE Arts hosts the London Firebird Orchestra with soloist Yury Revich performing the celebrated Bruch Violin Concerto on Sunday 9 March.

One of the best-loved violin concertos of all time, Bruch’s first violin concerto dates from 1866. Classic FM listeners voted it No.1 in the UK in 1996, and in its profile of Bruch, it described the violin concerto as ‘one of the best works of the Romantic period’.

Did you know?

Bruch also composed two more violin concertos, but neither has gained as much fame as his first. This was a source of great frustration for Bruch who wrote: ‘On the corner of the Via Toledo they stand there, ready to break out with my first violin concerto as soon as I allow myself to be seen. (They can all go to the devil! As if I had not written other equally good concertos!).

Either side of the violin concerto will be two fantastic orchestral pieces: Mozart’s Overture to Die Zauberflöte, K. 620 – The Magic Flute, and probably Beethoven’s most famous symphony, Symphony no. 5 in C minor, Op. 67.

SJE Arts with Yury Revich

Sunday 9 March, 6pm
SJE Arts, St John the Evangelist, Oxford OX4 1EH

Mozart Overture to Die Zauberflöte, K. 620
Bruch Violin Concerto no. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
Beethoven Symphony no. 5 in C minor, Op. 67

London Firebird Orchestra
Yury Revich violin
Michael Thrift conductor

This concert is generously sponsored by the Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation.

In London on Tuesday 29 April Yury will perform a virtuosic programme of violin delights with Vivaldi’s timeless classic The Four Seasons paired with Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.

Yes! Yury Revich is back for two fabulous Firebird concerts in Oxford and London with concertos by Vivaldi and Bruch…

The internationally-celebrated and multi-prize-winning violin star Yury Revich returns to Firebird for the sixth and seventh times with two concerts displaying his virtuosic talents as part of Firebird’s 2025 programme of classical greats. 

On Sunday 9 March in Oxford, Yury will perform Bruch’s celebrated first Violin Concerto – one of the best-loved violin concertos of all time – framed by a terrific overture by Mozart and one of the most beloved symphonies of all time by Beethoven, at a concert generously sponsored by the Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation.

Austrian violinist and composer Yury Revich won the ECHO Klassik Award, the International Classical Music Award, and his recording of Saint- Georges double concertos was listed on the US TOP 100 Billboard classical charts in 2021. 

At 18, he had his Carnegie Hall début alongside Daniil Trifonov and later débuted with Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in Milan. Since then he has performed at prestigious venues across Europe.

And on Tuesday 29 April in London, Yury will perform a virtuosic programme of violin delights with Firebird with Vivaldi’s timeless classic, The Four Seasons. This will be paired with Piazzolla’s tangos, the Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.

‘Full-blooded authority, fleet-fingered dexterity, innate musicality, and substantial accuracy…’ The Strad

Yury is also a successful composer with recent premieres with the Staatsphilharmonie Zagreb Soloists and the World Expo in Dubai in 2021. In 2023 his album of music by Chevalier St. Georges was included in the official soundtrack of Netflix series Bridgerton.

SJE Arts with Yury Revich

Sunday 9 March 6pm
SJE Arts, St John the Evangelist, Oxford OX4 1EH

Mozart Overture to Die Zauberflöte, K. 620
Bruch Violin Concerto no. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
Beethoven Symphony no. 5 in C minor, Op. 67

London Firebird Orchestra
Yury Revich violin
Michael Thrift conductor

This concert is generously sponsored by the Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation

Vivaldi with Yury Revich

Tuesday 29 April 7.30pm
St George’s Hanover Square, Mayfair, London W1S 1FX

Vivaldi Le Quattro Staggioni
Piazzola Estaciones Porteñas

London Firebird Orchestra
Principal Guest Conductor Michael Thrift
Violin Yury Revich

Featuring three highlights of the Piano Trio repertoire by Haydn, Ravel and Mendelssohn, our next concert on 30 January will be given by the fabulous Trio Concept.

Here is taster of these terrific rising stars performing the second movement of Schubert’s exquisite Trio op. 99…

Formed in 2013 by three musicians from Turin: Edoardo Grieco(violin), Francesco Massimino (cello), and Lorenzo Nguyen (piano), the trio changed their name in 2024 from Trio Chagall to Trio Concept. Inspired by the words of Michelangelo Buonarroti, this new name reflects the trio’s artistic commitment: to seek out and present the beauty inherent in every work, which comes to life through performance, just as the sculptor reveals the perfect form within a block of marble.

‘The finest Artist has no concept that a single block of marble does not already contain within itself’

Michelangelo Buonarroti

First Prize winners at the Schoenfeld International String Competition of Harbin in China, YCAT international auditions at Wigmore Hall in London and an ‘ECHO Rising Star’ for 2025/26, the trio will now be embarking on a prestigious European tour.

Join us for a wonderful programme featuring Haydn’s lively C major Trio, Ravel’s colourful A minor and the famous D minor Trio, a masterpiece by Mendelssohn.

Trio Concept

Thursday 30 January 2025, 7.30pm
St George’s Hanover Square, Mayfair, London W1S 1FX

Haydn Piano Trio No. 43 in C major, Hob.XV.27
Ravel Piano Trio in A minor (1914)
Felix Mendelssohn Trio op. 49 in D minor

Download your FREE programme for Tuesday’s fantastic London Firebird Orchestra
concert at St George’s Hanover Square, Mayfair, London.

Grieg with Amiri Harewood

Tuesday 19 November 2024, 7.30pm
St George’s Hanover Square

Grieg
Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op.16
Sibelius
Symphony No.5 in E flat, Op.82

London Firebird Orchestra
Guest Conductor Thomas Payne
Piano Amiri Harewood