Chamber Music Society rings in holiday season

The Chamber Music Society in association with premier sponsor, Fairway Holdings is pleased to present its annual Holiday Season Concert, on Sunday 4 December at 7:30 p.m., at the Lionel Wendt Theatre, Colombo 7. 

Tickets will be priced between Rs. 2,500 and Rs. 1,000 and will be available at the Lionel Wendt box office from 16 November. The concert will mark the second full-ensemble concert of the CMSC’s 2016/17 season. The repertoire will be festive and celebratory, and the CMSC is delighted to welcome back the Japanese violinist Mika Nishimura. 

Nishimura gave a well received performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at last year’s December concert. This year, she will treat us to her compelling interpretation of Mozart’s Fifth (and last) Violin Concerto, K. 219, she will also perform the ever golden ‘Meditation’ from Massenet’s opera, Thais. Mika performs on a pristine Giovanni Francesco Pressenda violin, one of the finest Italian violin makers of the 19th century. The other pieces will include two by the Hungarian composer Béla Kèler – two very Straussian works, the Lustspiel (Comic) overture, and the Sempre Crescendo Galop. 

Another will be an American treat – Meacham’s American Patrol March; and a French favourite – Emile Waldteufel’s The Ice Skaters waltz. The evening will end with Carols sung by the St. Benedict’s College choir, who will perform with the CMSC for the first time. The artistic director of the Society, Lakshman Joseph de Saram remarked, “I have fond boyhood memories of singing carols as a member of the Royal College choir, and it will be a delight to be able to recreate that wholesome holiday spirit with the St. Benedict’s choir and the CMSC. Though the college has a very long choral tradition, this is also their debut with the CMSC; we hope that it will be a mutually beneficial experience.”