Philharmonia Orchestra: Leia Zhu Plays The Lark Ascending
Rising star Leia Zhu plays The Lark Ascending in a programme that takes us from England to Italy.
Chloé van Soeterstède conductor
Leia Zhu violin
Schubert Symphony No. 5
Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4 ‘Italian’
Already captivating audiences with her musical maturity, 16-year-old violinist Leia Zhu is a star in the making. With “a poise and musical intelligence beyond her years” (The Guardian), Leia takes on one of the best-loved works in the repertoire: Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending. This sublime piece poignantly conjures up the glorious image of the rolling British countryside, with singing violin lines tracing the songbird’s ascent into the sky.
Praised for her “gifts of balance, attention, and acute musical sensibility” (Bachtrack), Chloé van Soeterstède opens the concert with fresh and exuberant music from a 19-year-old Schubert, before whisking us off to Italy in Mendelssohn’s sunny Fourth Symphony, a work once described by the composer as “the jolliest piece” he had ever written.
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