In January 2008, Ensemble Allegria played its first concert, and on 26 January 2023 we invite you to the celebration of our 15th anniversary at Sentralen. We start the year with a dream program in D major from four decades: Handel, Mendelssohn, Stravinsky and the improv duo Vilde&Inga!

PROGRAM

Georg F. Händel: Concerto Grosso, Op. 6, nr. 5 i D-dur (1739)

Vilde&Inga: Improvisasjon

Felix Mendelssohn: Strykersymfoni nr. 2 i D (1821)

Vilde&Inga: Improvisasjon

Igor Stravinskij: Konsert i D (1946)

Vilde&Inga is a young string duo playing acoustic free improvised music, featuring violin and double bass. By exploring nontraditional approaches to the instruments, the duo greatly expands their timbre palette. The wide horizons of colour allow the music to develop slowly and organically, yet with a keen underlying sense of compositional form. Vilde Sandve Alnæs and Inga Margrete Aas are classically trained musicians from Norway. They started to play together in 2010 and have studied at The Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. In 2016 they received The Lindeman Prize for Young Musicians. Vilde&Inga tour both in Norway and internationally. Aas and Alnæs are also both involved in a new trio with Sidsel Endresen (voice) named Azkadenya. Festivals they have visited include Oslo Jazz Festival, Only Connect Festival of Sound, Kongsberg Jazz Festival, Vinterlyd festival, Ultima – Oslo Contemporary Music Festival and Sound Disobedience. Vilde&Inga’s first album, Makrofauna, was released on ECM March 2014. They released their second album ‘Silfr’ on the Norwegian label SOFA May 2017. Their double album How Forests Think was released on SOFA 16th of October 2020.

Händel's 12 Concerto Grossi, Op 6. was written to be performed in connection with his great oratorios in London in 1739 and 1740. But this was certainly not interval music - it was actually these new compositions that were the "headliners" of the London newspapers in advance of the concerts! With these 12 works for 2 violins, cello and orchestra, Handel further develops the legacy of Italy's Concerto Grosso master Arcangelo Corelli: The 12 works are incredibly different and partly experimental, and Handel draws inspiration from musical styles and genres from all over Europe.

Around 80 years later, 12-year-old Felix Mendelssohn began writing his string symphonies, and already as a 14-year-old he had written 13 pieces. He was clearly inspired by the masters Mozart and Haydn, and experimented with new effects, such as dividing the instrument groups in new ways.

In 1946, Igor Stravinsky had just begun his new life in the United States after fleeing Europe during World War II. His first composition in the States was the Concert in D, which he wrote for the Basel Chamber Orchestra on the occasion of their 20th anniversary. The concert is therefore often called the "Basel concert", and has become a classic in the chamber orchestra repertoire.