Nigel Kennedy to play Malvern and Bristol (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Nigel Kennedy to play Malvern and Bristol

WORLD renowned violinist Nigel Kennedy will be performing some of Vivaldi's best kept secrets when he takes to the stage in Malvern and Bristol this month.

The violin virtuoso will be joined in Malvern by the town's very own English Symphony Orchestra to share an evening of music including concerti for violin, cello, oboe and harpsicord.

There will also be performances of the composer's much loved classic Four Seasons - Summer and Winter, for which the Kennedy version earned a place in the Guiness Book of Records as the best selling classical work of all time.

But over three quarters of Vivaldi's work has yet to be performed and it was this in mind that Kennedy has launched his current project exploring the other aspects of this great composer's genius.

The Vivaldi Experience will be performed at Colston Hall, Bristol on Wednesday, March 10 and at The Forum, Malvern Theatres on Thursday, March 11 and Friday, March 12 at 8.30pm.

The following month Kennedy will be recording the same works with the Berliner Philharmoniker.

His friend and touring partner Taro Takeuchi is also involved with the recordings and joins him for the concerts, performing on lute and baroque guitar.

Members of the English Symphony Orchestra include Michael Bochmann, familiar to local music lovers as leading member of the Bochmann Quartet, and Janet Masters on violin, David Ponsford, also very well known in the Cirencester area, on harpsicord, Paul Arden Taylor on oboe and Peter Adams on cello.

Each performance will last approximately two and a half hours.

Tickets for the Malvern concerts from the box office between 9.30am and 8pm on 01684 892277 or online at www.malvern-theatres.co.uk and for the Bristol concert from the Colston Hall box office between 10am and 8.30pm on 01179 223686 or online at www.colstonhall.org