Academy of Ancient Music - Awakening of the Romantic hero
Paganini and Beethoven's 'Eroica'
Repertoire
- Weber
- Overture to Der Freischutz
- Paganini
- Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor
- Beethoven
- Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, ‘Eroica’
Performers
- Richard Egarr
- Conductor
- Shunske Sato
- Violin
Brilliant Japanese violinist Shunske Sato makes his AAM debut (and his first public appearance in the UK) in a programme exploring three bold and very different musical ideas which give birth to the phenomenon of the Romantic hero.
Shunske stars in Paganini’s Violin concerto No. 2, the first performance in recent times on period instruments. For Paganini, heroes were created by the sternest musical test, and this concerto demands thrilling virtuosic acrobatics from the soloist.
Beethoven’s Eroica, meanwhile, shattered tradition with its unprecedented scale, grand climaxes and compositional ingenuity. Beethoven’s heroism would revolutionise musical history.
The programme opens with the overture to one of the most popular works of its day, Weber’s Der Freischütz. The opera tells of love overcoming magic bullets and supernatural evil, and its overture is full of enigmatic, suggestive music.
6.30pm: Pre-concert talk with Richard Egarr