Welcome to Camerata Nordica - one of Sweden's leading chamber orchestras Music Director: Terje Tønnesen
CAMERATA NORDICA, MAKES ITS BBC PROMS DEBUT
WITH A WORLD PREMIÈRE BY BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Saturday 31st of August, 2013 @ 3 pm
Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Square, London SW1X 9DQ
London, UK (18 April, 2013) – Earlier today, the BBC announced that Sweden’s leading international camerata ensemble, Camerata Nordica, will perform at this year’s prestigious BBC Proms classical music festival. The performance by the Oskarshamn-based ensemble will take place on 31 August at 3 pm and will feature the highly anticipated world première of Elegy for strings by Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976).
Camerata Nordica’s 76-minute long matinee will take place at Cadogan Hall, one of London’s leading concert venues. In line with its distinct camerata feature, the ensemble will perform without a conductor, and will instead be directed from the concert-master position by distinguished Norwegian violinist Terje Tønnesen. As well as the world première of Elegy for strings, the programme also includes Britten’s Simple Symphony and Lachrymae, with viola soloist Catherine Bullock. We also hear works by two of Britten’s contemporaries; Little music for strings by Sir Michael Tippet and Sonata for strings by William Walton.
Kjell Lindström, General Manager for Camerata Nordica, says: "It is a great privilege for us to be given the opportunity to perform at BBC Proms and showcase our quality of music to an international audience. Camerata is Sweden’s leading string ensemble of its kind, and we are overwhelmed, delighted and deeply honoured to be given this wonderful opportunity."
A recording of works by Benjamin Britten will be released later this year and will include, among other pieces, Simple Symphony and Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge. This will form the starting point for a collaboration between Camerata Nordica and the reputable Swedish record label BIS Records.
Founded in 1895, BBC Proms is the world’s largest classical music festival, which runs from mid-July to mid-September every year and showcases leading international performers during more than 90 concerts and events to an audience which last year exceeded 300,000 people.
According to Colin Matthews, a specialist on Britten “Britten's Elegy for strings was written in April 1928, at the age of 14, not long before the Quatre chansons françaises. However, as his diaries only begin in the autumn of that year when he started at Gresham's School, there is no documentation for it. The piece is written for an at times multi-divided string orchestra - for one passage they are in 19 parts - and almost anticipates Strauss’ Metamorphosen by 17 years.”
