Fancy Free at Opera House

Leonore No 3 is actually the second of Beethoven’s four overtures to Fidelio and was written for a shorter 1806 version of the opera. Tightly restructured in sonata form, it condenses the heroic sweep of the opera’s journey from darkness to light.

When the opera was revived in 1814, Beethoven wrote a completely new overture. Now known as Fidelio, it packs a mighty punch right from the fearless, leaping challenge of its opening chords.

Bernstein’s jazzy romp, Fancy Free was written for a 1944 ballet about the adventures of three sailors on shore leave. It was wildly successful and confirmed Bernstein’s reputation as a composer to watch. The music gives a nod to Stravinsky’s motoric rhythms, but Fancy Free’s biggest influences are the lively streets and clubs of New York as Bernstein saw them.

The Serenade for solo violin shows Bernstein’s other side as a purely classical composer. He likened it to Plato’s Dialogue, “a series of related statements in praise of love”. Performing it with Orchestra Wellington is Natalia Lomeiko, well- known in New Zealand since winning the 2003 Michael Hill International Violin Competition. Born into a family of musicians in Novosibirsk, Russia in 1979, Natalia Lomeiko has established herself internationally as a regular performing artist and has won many other international prizes including First at the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition. She has performed as soloist with the Royal Philharmonic and the Tokyo Royal Philharmonic, and her chamber music colleagues include Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet and Dmitry Sitkovetsky.