With the clocks having gone forward and spring officially sprung, the Ulster Orchestra brings a touch of all four seasons tonight (Tuesday 3 April) with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, one of the most popular and well known pieces of music to Clonard Monastery in Baroque at Easter, a concert of timeless Baroque classics.
The Orchestra’s Hungarian-born Leader, violinist Tamás Kocsis is the soloist for the Four Seasons and directs the concert that also includes music by Bach, Purcell and Handel’s uplifting Water Music.
Looking forward to the concert Tamás said, “It’s has been a busy few days, as we performed Brahms’ great Requiem in the Ulster Hall on Friday and was in Derry on Sunday for an education concert, but I am really looking to playing at this special venue.
“While the Orchestra has played at Clonard before, this is my first time performing at the Monastery where I will also be playing the Bach Double Concerto with Chris Blake, our Principal Oboe player. He is a dear friend and a fantastic oboist, so I am sure we are going to have lots of fun performing this wonderful piece,” he continued.
“The Four Seasons always presents a challenge, being very well known and very transparent. No wonder it’s popular with audiences and performers alike, it is a beautiful set of Concertos.”
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Performing live to 100,000 people each year in venues from Ulster Hall to Strabane’s Leisure Centre, the National Concert Hall in Dublin to London’s Royal Albert Hall, since its foundation in 1966 Northern Ireland’s only professional orchestra has also played in many ecclesiastical venues from the cathedrals of Armagh to St Columb’s Cathedral, Derry and St Anne’s in Belfast.
Speaking about the concert, Clonard’s Rector, Father Michael Murtagh, said, “The Four Seasons is such a famous piece of music and written by a man who I recently discovered was himself ordained a priest.
“I am looking forward to the concert that comes, for many obvious reasons, at an incredibly special time for so many people being Holy Week. It is also our first Easter back in our newly restored church and the first time in three years that the Orchestra has played here and it’s great to have them back.”
Talking about the Bach Double Concerto, UO Principal Oboe Christopher Blake said, “I have played this amazing concerto with the last two leaders of the Orchestra and am really looking forward to performing it with Tamás, who is an extraordinary violinist.
“You need a lot of stamina for this peice because the music never stops which is unusual for a wind concerto. It is also a challenge to play in different places too, as the environment and acoustics differ from place to place, but we are all really looking forward to returning to Clonard,” Christopher said.
Tickets for the concert on 3 April at 8pm are still available from the Ulster Orchestra Box Office on 028 9023 9955 and ulsterorchestra.com.