Laurence Equilbey conducts Mozart, Fanny Mendelssohn and Schubert – Symphonies of a new world – With Giuliano Carmignola and Antoine Tamestit

A musical ensemble founded at the suggestion of its musical director Laurence Equilbey in 2012, the Insula Orchestra gathers ancient instruments and focuses on works from the classical and pre-romantic repertoire. The ensemble is dedicated to composers of the "Goethe generation" (from Bach's to Schubert's death) under a specific way: indeed the insula is a part of our brain that transforms feelings into emotions. During this concert, the Insula Orchestra performs three major pieces that gave music of this period new perspectives.

The concert begins with the Sinfonia concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra composed by Mozart during the autumn 1779, an ambitious work in vogue at that times. Indeed, she got a great success in Parisian concert halls, according to its mix of concerto and concerto grosso accents to its symphonic shape. With a deep melodic power, the work is divided into a first movement with majestic tunes, a second which the Minor key seems to express a kind of suffering of the composer, and the final movement where cheerfulness is remarkably developed with the virtuosity of the instruments.

In performing afterwards Fanny Mendelssohn's Overture in C Major, Laurence Equilbey and the Insula Orchestra give a great tribute to the composer. Fanny Mendelssohn is part of those rare women that were composers at the 19th century, she is in particular a Clara Schumann's contemporary. In his brother's shadow, Felix Mendelssohn, she would have yet composed more than 400 works she would have dared to publish only at the end of her life. Composed around 1830, the Overture in C Major has the particularity to be the only symphonic work she wrote. A "Beautiful genius", as she had been nicknamed by her brother, Fanny Mendelssohn reflects in this work a great musical sensitivity and an incredible gift for composing.

The concert ends with one of the first masterworks the young Schubert composed. Indeed he was aged only 19 when he wrote this Symphony No. 4. The composer himself gave it the epithet "Tragic" according to the first movement characterized by a kind of melancholic aura, in addition to be the first symphony he composed in a Minor key. Nevertheless his 4th symphony is a highly beautiful work with dramatic accents he had composed during the most prolific years over his life. Antonín Dvorák, who thoroughly admired Schubert, said about him: "This work always remains fascinating and new at our ears. She has the same power than the heavy clouds crossed by the rays of sunshine."

Picture: Laurence Equilbey © Julien Mignot.