Virtuosi and the WSO Go Baroque

WINNIPEG¬‚ ’Äî Virtuosi Concerts and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra have once again collaborated to bring a 15-member ensemble led by concert master, Gwen Hoebig to Eckhardt-Gramattˆ© Hall. Due to the popularity of the group, two performances are scheduled: Saturday, Dec. 12 at 8pm and Sunday, Dec. 13 at 2pm.

For this performance we welcome, Maximilian Fleischman on harpsichord and piano forte. Fleischman earned his undergraduate degree in music history from Harvard University, where he was both a Leonard Bernstein Scholar and a Harvard National Scholar. He earned a second master's degree in Early Music from Oberlin College. He appears regularly as a soloist, chamber musician, and continuo player, performing repertoire spanning five centuries and four instruments.

Gwen Hoebig is recognized as one of Canada's most outstanding violinists. As a soloist with orchestra she has performed all the major violin concerti with orchestras across Canada, the United States and Europe. Hoebig joined the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra as concertmaster in 1987, having been awarded the position as the unanimous choice of the audition committee.

Johann Sebastian Bach fathered 20 children and from among them, four significant musicians emerged. Our programme raises compelling questions: were Carl Philipp Emanuel, Wilhelm Friedemann, Johann Christian and Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach transitional musical figures or important composers in their own rights? How did they advance their compositional styles in the shadow of such a father? How did they break away from the traditions J.S. Bach embodied and how did they influence other composers? We felt the best way to attempt to reveal all of this is to hear their music, with the master’Äôs own as point of reference.

Programme: C.P.E. BACH Sinfonia in C major, Wq 182/3 ; J.S. BACH, Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, BWV 1041; W.F. BACH, Sinfonia in F major ’ÄúDissonant’Äù, F. 67; J.S. BACH, Cantata No. 29: Sinfonia; J. C. BACH, Keyboard Concerto in Eb major, Op 7, No. 5, C. 59 J.C.F. BACH, Symphony in D minor, W I/3, C. 4