I. Allegro, II. Adagio, III. Allegro Assai
Conducted by Music Director, Peter Stafford Wilson
Siwoo Kim, Violin
Violin I
Siwoo Kim, soloist
Alicia Hui, concertmaster
Kathryn Stephenson
Dominik Repka
Matthew Boles
Davis Hoem
Violin II
Melissa Zigler
Alexandra Vargo
Elijah Simpkins
Lauren Absten
Viola
Meagan Cramm
Andrea Tippery
Norman Cardwell-Murri
Cello
Sybil Baker
Tulia Spurgeon
Eden Davis
Bass
Jim Bates
Lydia Namakydoost
Harpsichord
Suzanne Newcomb
All Sound and Video Engineering by
Eric Van Wagner
www.onlineensembles.com
We don’t know exactly when Johannes Sebastian Bach composed his Concerto for Violin in E Major, but it’s thought to have originated when he served as Kapellmeister in the court of Prince Leopold in Anhalt-Köthen from 1717 to 1723. Because the court was Calvinist and used little music in church services, Bach didn’t need to perform as an organist or compose liturgical compositions, so he had free time to write secular works. A large portion of his instrumental music stems from this period.
The E Major violin concerto follows the three-movement Italian model: there are two fast movements with a slow movement in the middle. It features elements from the Italian concerto style, with interplay between soloist and orchestra, but Bach also freely integrated his own approach within this format. For instance, a baroque concerto by Vivaldi might see the soloist go off on musical tangents, whereas Bach’s style can be described as a steady thematic progression where the soloist stays mostly within the orchestra’s texture, weaving the solo line in and out.
We hope you enjoy the Bach, and thank you for your ongoing support of the Westerville Symphony.