Vilde Frang and
Chamber Orchestra
of Europe

There is every reason to be excited when the Chamber Orchestra of Europe – considered ‘the finest chamber orchestra in the world’ (BBC 2) – performs at the Oslo Opera House in February. Over the years, the CEO has performed in the most famous concert halls worldwide and together with many of the world’s greatest performers. Next on its list is a collaboration with Vilde Frang – who began playing the violin at the age of four, debuted with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra at ten and has become an internationally in-demand and award-winning violin player. During this concert, we will hear her masterful performance of Schumann’s Violin Concerto. The programme also includes two of our most beloved classical works.

Mozart’s last-minute overture 

The musical line-up starts with the overture from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Rumour has it that Mozart composed the overture the night before the premiere in 1787. The story goes that the genius composer had been out drinking when one of his friends reminded him that he had not yet finished composing the opera. At midnight, Mozart went up to his room and completed the overture in only three hours – while his wife, Constanze, told him stories to keep him awake. 

Schumann’s secret concert 

Schumann’s passionate Violin Concerto in D Minor is his only violin concerto – and believe it or not, it was a spiritualist séance that made it known to the world. Schumann wrote the concerto in 1856 at the end of his life and died before it was finished. His widow, Clara, was not particularly thrilled about the work and hid the notes away with instructions ‘Not to be performed for 100 years’. In 1937, a violinist in England claimed to have been told during a spiritualist séance with a Ouija board that a violin concerto written by none other than Schumann existed. After searching high and low, the forgotten notes were found in the Prussian State Library in Berlin! And good thing too because otherwise, we would not have the pleasure of enjoying the concerto at the Oslo Opera House. 

Beethoven’s tribute to Napoleon 

The programme is rounded off with what may be Beethoven’s most influential work, the Eroica Symphony. Completed in 1804, the symphony was originally intended as Beethoven’s tribute to the military general Napoleon, from the intense first movement via the sorrowful second movement to the third movement, full of tempo and temperament, and concluding with a fourth variation that gives the hero a triumphant ending. It also proved to be triumphant for Beethoven, who experienced his major breakthrough with this symphony.  

Vilde Frang and the COE 

Violinist Vilde Frang is a high-profile soloist and chamber musician both at home and abroad. She plays weekly with the world’s greatest conductors and orchestras and as a chamber musician, she has collaborated with musicians like Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Martha Argerich and Janine Jansen, as well as toured with Anne-Sophie Mutter. 

The COE was established in 1981 by a group of young musicians who had graduated from the European Community Youth Orchestra (now called the EUYO). Their ambition was to continue to work together on the highest possible professional level. Today’s members all pursue parallel careers as soloists or section leaders for nationally based orchestras, as prominent chamber musicians, or as music teachers. What they all have in common is a passion for and a wealth of knowledge of music. 

Solist Vilde Frang
Conductor Rafael Payare 

Programme: 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Overture to Don Giovanni
Robert Schumann Violin Concerto
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony no. 3 ‘Eroica’