Helena Rathbone, Principal Violin and founding Director of ACO Collective, celebrates her 25th anniversary with the ACO in a program curated around works by Beethoven and Mendelssohn.
We open with Dancing on Clouds, a piece by Australian composer Paul Stanhope for ACO Collective’s recently recorded Hush album of music for children’s hospitals. Then it’s straight into Beethoven’s First Romance for violin and orchestra, delightful and optimistic in mood, followed by Mendelssohn’s youthful and energetic Sinfonia No.7.
Helena is a great admirer of fellow Brit, Edward Elgar. His Serenade for Strings is a tranquil piece, a far cry from his later, larger works. Our grand finale brings a dramatic shift in mood with Beethoven’s great String Quartet in F minor, Op.95, arranged for string orchestra. Known as the “Serioso”, it has a tempestuous quality that brings the program to a gripping end.
