Candlelight concert by London Concertante with violin soloist Simon Hewitt Jones, featuring Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending.
London Concertante are playing Chester Cathedral on Friday 13 November, with Simon Hewitt Jones as soloist. The whole thing is staged by candlelight, and the cathedral itself is acting as the box office, so you can pick up tickets there.
At the heart of the programme is Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, which is described as the most recorded work in classical music and a defining showpiece for solo violin. Each of the four concertos depicts a different season, shaped by accompanying poems possibly written by Vivaldi himself. They evoke birdsong, buzzing flies, harvest celebrations, barking dogs, summer storms and winter ice, so the music follows the changing year rather than just playing through it.
Alongside that is Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending, composed on the eve of the First World War and inspired by George Meredith's poem. Its soaring violin line is meant to suggest a lark gliding high above a mechanised world, a stark contrast to the more descriptive, seasonal vignettes of the Vivaldi. The evening opens with Mozart's Overture to The Marriage of Figaro, drawn from Beaumarchais' comedy.
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It runs from 19:30 to 21:30 at Chester Cathedral, St Werburgh Street, CH1 2DY.
