Västerås, Sweden – Västerås Sinfonietta – Rossini, Dvořák, Wagner, Sollima

PERFORMERS
Alon Sariel, mandolin
Västerås Sinfonietta
Bar Avni, conductor

PROGRAMME
Rossini: L’italiana in Algeri (Overture)
Dvořák: Serenade for Wind Instruments, Op.44
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
Sollima: Mandolin Concerto

VENUE NOTE
This will be a kaleidoscopic musical mix in the hands of two artists who are visiting us for the first time. Conductor Bar Avni won first prize in 2024 at the La Maestra competition in Paris. She is invited by orchestras all over Europe, including the Orchestre de Paris and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Alon Sariel has a double career as a conductor and virtuoso on the mandolin. Here we hear him in a concert by Giovanni Sollima who often mixes jazz and rock in his music. Nothing is quite as exhilarating as an overture by Rossini. His comic opera The Italian in Algiers takes place in an exotic setting typical of the time.

Dvorak wrote two serenades. The one for string orchestra is best known, but now we have the opportunity to hear the wonderful serenade for wind players. As always with Dvorak, it has a Bohemian folk colour while at the same time being linked to classical predecessors in the genre. A thankless task for our skilled wind players. On Christmas morning in 1870, Siegfried Idyll sounded for the first time. It was Wagner’s birthday present to his wife Cosima and son Siegfried.