Alena Baeva is one of the most respected violinists of our time. Together with the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, she will present her interpretation of Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, one of the most famous works of this type in the history of music. The programme also includes two compositions for strings: by Dag Wirén and Mieczysław Karłowicz.

Dag Wirén’s Serenade for strings will be the first. This 20th-century artist represented the Neo-classicist trend. It was characterised by the use of Classical genres and formal transparency, which often translates into works in this style being listener-friendly. It is no different in the case of the Serenade. The work consists of four movements: the motoric Prelude, the melodious Andante espressivo, the airy Scherzo and the swashbuckling March.

The Serenade in C major op. 2 by Mieczysław Karłowicz was written in 1897 during his studies in Berlin. It was also premiered there under the direction of the Karłowicz’s teacher, Heinrich Urban, to whom it was dedicated. It is music full of lightness, charm and humour, not resembling the dark style known from the composer’s later symphonic poems.

The second part of the concert will be filled with Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, called “a jewel of the heart” by the famous violinist Joseph Joachim. Work on the work took six years. Since Mendelssohn was not a professional violinist, when he wanted to solve a technical problem, he often consulted Ferdinand David, concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, who was also the first performer of the work. This composition contains many innovative elements. This is probably the first violin concerto in which the main theme of the first movement is introduced by the solo instrument right away, and only then repeated by the orchestra, contrary to the principles of writing concertos back then. A similar change concerned the virtuoso cadenza, placed by Mendelssohn in the middle of the first movement (before the part called the reprise), and not at its end. All three movements are performed attacca, i.e. without intermissions, which makes the narrative very coherent. This concert is also distinguished by melodiousness and moodiness, it is a work that is easy to listen to, and at the same time so moving. All these elements mean that from the moment of its premiere it has taken a permanent place in the repertoire of the best violinists.