The ‘Pure Gold’ series • ERSO kontserdisarjad 2023/2024

The ‘Pure Gold’ series, which debuted last season, is back this year to bring the absolute best works of classical music to the audience. The series will open with the concert ‘Scottish Fantasy’, featuring the exciting soloist, bagpiper Robert Jordan. He will perform An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise by Peter Maxwell Davies with ERSO. We will hear Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3, known as the Scottish symphony. In Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra, we hear Scottish folk tunes. The soloist is Canadian violinist Lara St. John. Malcolm Arnold’s program music overture Tam O’Shanter is based on a poem of the same name by the Scottish writer Robert Burns, and tells the story of an alcohol-loving farmer.

British conductor Jonathan Bloxham will be performing with ERSO for the third time and has invited one of the trumpet players from the Berliner Philharmoniker to perform as a soloist. Having begun his career as a cellist, Bloxham has already conducted prestigious orchestras in Europe and Asia. Joseph Haydn’s popular Trumpet Concerto will be presented by Andre Schoch, who, in addition to his work with the Berliner Philharmoniker, also instructs young musicians at the University of Mannheim and the Karajan Academy.  An excerpt will be heard from Henry Purcell’s Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary, which the composer wrote for the funeral of Queen Mary II. We will also hear the Coriolan Overture, written by Ludwig van Beethoven for Heinrich Joseph von Collin’s tragedy, and Franz Schubert’s final and expansive Symphony No. 9.

The soloist for the third concert in the series is Jasmine Choi, one of her generation’s most acclaimed flautists. She is a sought-after soloist and ensemble partner around the world, and her repertoire ranges from classical to pop music. Together with ERSO, she will be performing Carl Reinecke’s Flute Concerto. The concert will be conducted by Holly Hyun Choe, who has assisted Paavo Järvi at the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich in the recent seasons. She will conduct the third overture to Ludwig van Beethoven’s opera Leonore and Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 4. The work is the last in order, but the first symphony composed by Schumann.

Conductor Matthew Halls performed with ERSO for the first time in March 2023. After our successful collaboration, we look forward to having him back in front of the orchestra during the new season. On this occasion, he will perform with Henning Kraggerud. The Norwegian will be the soloist for the performance of Violin Concerto No. 1 by Max Bruch. Similar to the previous concerts in the ‘Pure Gold’ series, the programme for this evening includes an overture by Ludwig van Beethoven , this time to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s play Egmont. From the 2023/24 season, Matthew Halls will be Chief Conductor of the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, so it is more than appropriate that the programme includes Finnish music. Symphony No. 3 by Finland’s most famous symphonist, Jean Sibelius, will be performed.

I: SCOTTISH FANTASY

Saturday, 9 December 2023

at 6 p.m. (pre-concert)

at 7 p.m.

Malcolm Arnold. Overture Tam O’Shanter, Op. 51

Max Bruch. Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46

Felix Mendelssohn. Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56

Peter Maxwell Davies. An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise

LARA ST. JOHN on violin, ROBERT JORDAN on bagpipes, ERSO, conductor OLARI ELTS

II: BLOXHAM AND SCHUBERT

Friday, 15 December 2023

at 6 p.m. (pre-concert)

at 7 p.m.

Henry Purcell. March from the work Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary

Ludwig van Beethoven. Overture Coriolan, Op. 62

Joseph Haydn. Trumpet Concerto in E-flat major, Hob. VIIe/1

Franz Schubert. Symphony No. 9 in C major, D 944,

ANDRE SCHOCH on trumpet, ERSO, conductor JONATHAN BLOXHAM

III: JASMINE CHOI

Friday, 1 March 2024

at 6 p.m. (pre-concert)

at 7 p.m.

Ludwig van Beethoven. Overture Leonore No. 3, Op. 72b

Carl Reinecke. Flute Concerto in D major, Op. 283

Robert Schumann. Symphony No. 4 in D minor, Op. 120

JASMINE CHOI flute, ERSO, Conductor HOLLY HYUN CHOE

IV: MATTHEW HALLS AND SIBELIUS

Friday, 5 April 2024

at 6 p.m. (pre-concert)

at 7 p.m.

Ludwig van Beethoven. Overture Egmont, Op. 84

Max Bruch. Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26

Jean Sibelius. Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 52

HENNING KRAGGERUD on violin, ERSO, conductor MATTHEW HALLS