"Essence of Spring"
March 19 and 20, 2016
with
Guest Pianist, Sarah Hagen

The NCO is privileged to be performing Mozart's Concerto No.12 with Canadian pianist Sarah Hagen, in March of this year.  Ms. Hagen has been heard in concert halls and on the airwaves throughout North America and Europe. Her interpretations have been described as “outstandingly inventive”, performed with “infinite skill”.  NCO audience members may have had the pleasure of listening to Ms. Hagen as host of the Tuesday morning Coffee Concert Series at Nanaimo’s Port Theatre.

The program also features 4 other works that present different moods and provenance.   Torelli’s “Concerto Primo, Op 8, No. 1” is an eminently Baroque work that features a solo quartet alternating with the full orchestra (tutti).  “Sarabande” is a triple-meter dance of Spanish origin, normally performed at a slow tempo.  Saint Saēns’ version, scored for strings and incorporating a prominent violin solo, has a particularly expressive melody.  “Two Swedish Folk Melodies”, arranged by Norwegian, Johan Svendsen, around 1878 are melodic Scandinavian favourites.  “A Very English Music”, composed in 2002 by Paul Carr, sketches the bucolic English countryside of Sussex, then Cornwall and concludes with a foxhunt in Wiltshire.

                               Sarah Hagen

Sat., Mar.19 in Nanaimo

Sun., Mar. 20 in Parksville