Summer, for schoolchildren (and of course their parents), means the long, joyful vacation following the school year—travel, swimming, and excursions. At our concert, you will hear the Summer violin concerto from Antonio Vivaldi’s great work The Four Seasons. In this piece, the composer depicts the drowsiness caused by the summer heat, but also conjures up a true summer storm, complete with thunder and gusting winds.
The sound of joy fills the opening movement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s famous Eine kleine Nachtmusik. Equally cheerful is the Pizzicato Polka by Johann Strauss II, whose special character comes from the string players performing without bows, plucking their instruments with their fingers.
Summer is also traditionally the season of weddings. The renowned Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, in his symphonic poem about his country’s main river, the Vltava, portrays a village wedding as an important episode. Another festive wedding scene appears in the famous Wedding March from Felix Mendelssohn’s incidental music to William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The concert series was founded and is professionally advised by Gábor Fenyő.
