Northern Chamber Orchestra is pleased to welcome back Nicholas Daniel on Saturday 7 December, surely among the greatest of BBC Young Musician winners. Vaughan Williams wrote his Oboe Concerto in 1944 at the age of 72 while composing his opera The Pilgrim’s Progress. It has a symphonic feel about it while at the same time virtuosic and beautifully lyrical.

Shostakovich wrote his 8th string quartet in Dresden over only 3 days in 1960. It’s an intensely personal piece, using a 4 note motif made from his name while quoting from a number of his own works. There is an incredibly bleak landscape contrasted with terrifying sounds of war. Following this we have Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor, the adagio alternately dramatic and quite beautiful, preceding a fugue he had composed earlier for two pianos.

The concert begins and ends with baroque: Handel’s B minor concerto grosso contains one of his loveliest tunes – the E major Larghetto e piano, and Vivaldi’s C minor concerto is one of his finest.

Saturday 7 December 2019 7.30pm, Macclesfield Heritage Centre

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