Monday, August 03, 2009

Review: Lister Musiksalon - Vivaldi and Bach

Oh, it's been a while now, but Magnus and I attended a concert at the Lister Musiksalon (the List Area Music Salon), which is run by our neighbor, Roger Heimann, out of his design/advertising studio.

This was the 2nd one I've been to, and coincidentally they were both by Professor Adam Kostecki a Hochschule für Musik und Theater (the Hannover Conservatory for Music and Theater) violin professor. Now, I like violins, but it wouldn't necessarily occur to me to choose to go to a purely violin concert. The first concert I heard at the Musiksalon was a recital of this professor's students. The quality of the playing and musicality of these kids was very high and so when I heard that Prof. Kostecki had put together a little orchestra of HMT students and they would be playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Bach's Double violin concerto I decided it was time I go again. Broaden my horizons, you know? :-) Ha! I'm a sucker for baroque music, even without voices.

Now having heard the concert, I'm not sure I've ever actually listened to the entire Four Seasons consciously. Everyone, literally everyone knows a few snippets from their inclusion in advertising, and I'm no different. But the entire piece is just marvelous and the student orchestra did a fine job. Even if they were playing modern instruments. :-) Prof. Kostecki played the solo violin in the first and 2nd movements and a student played the solos in the 3rd and 4th. I was moved by the professor's performance. He is from Poland and has his students play a lot of polish music, which I am pleasantly surprised to say, I've liked a lot. The orchestra did an encore by a polish composer, Henrik Mikolaj Gorecki, which was just fantastic, with elements of minimalism.

I just heard that the orchestra (also called Hannover Kammerorchester) has traveled afield to give concerts. If you see one led by Prof. Adam Kostecki, Hannover go hear them. It's worth it.

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