Revolution in the Air with the Chineke! Orchestra.
Chineke! Orchestra. Photo courtesy of Warwick Arts Centre.
Chineke! Orchestra, Butterworth Hall, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry. Thursday 26 October 2023.
Preview by Anne Cee.
Revolution in the air
What better way to conclude Black History Month than to attend a fine concert by Chineke! Orchestra which, since its founding in 2015 by Chi-chi Nwanoku CBE, has been celebrating and promoting the talents of black and ethnically diverse classical musicians in UK and Europe. This critically acclaimed orchestra is resident at the Southbank Centre in London but also makes regular appearances at festivals and concert halls around the country and beyond, including the fabulous Butterworth Hall at Warwick Arts Centre.
This concert will be the orchestra’s second visit to Coventry this year and it promises to take us on a virtual trip to Paris to experience some of the musical and political atmosphere before and after the French Revolution of the late 1700s. An infamously turbulent period which fizzed with excess, romance and rebellion, the evening’s programme will start by sweeping us through Haydn’s fourth ‘Paris’ Symphony in grand style before exploring the commissioned work of Joseph Bologne – a dynamic violinist, fencer and composer who switched from being a favourite in aristocratic circles to leading social reforms in the Republic.
Finally, a Beethoven symphony will remind us of the country’s most ambitious and well know military commander, Napoleon Bonapart, who became Emperor of the French and a leader of enduring social and political change. Long live ‘Freedom, Equality and Fraternity’.
This concert has the bonus of offering a pre-performance talk (booked separately) where the audience can ask all those burning questions about musical revolutions.
This concert is the first of five concerts in the Warwick Arts Centre’s 2023/24 Orchestral Series.
