SWAMPSCOTT — The North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra (NSPO) will wrap up its 2021-22 season with a spring concert on April 24.
Violist Kimberly Lehmann will take center stage as the featured soloist in the William Walton Viola Concerto on Sunday when Music Director Robert Lehmann, her spouse, conducts the North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra (NSPO) in its 2021-22 season finale at Swampscott High School.
The concert program will start at 3 p.m. with “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” written in 1910 by Ralph Vaughan-Williams, one of the best-known British symphonists.
“I probably would not have become a violinist had it not been for the brilliant vibrancy of Vivaldi’s baroque concerti (like the Four Seasons) on the one hand, and Vaughan-Williams’ masterful use of strings writing in his ‘Fantasia on a Theme’ by Thomas Tallis,” said Robert Lehmann. “The draw on both my heart-strings and my bow and strings was immediate upon first hearing this work.”
This music piece offers a breadth of expression between the multi-layered string part-writing and the composer’s choice to separate a subset of players to echo the main group and take the audience back to the Renaissance viols of Tallis’ time, Lehmann said.
Walton’s Viola Concerto is regarded as one of the composer’s most important works. It was written by the British avant-garde composer in 1929 and has been recorded by the world’s leading violists as far back as 1937.
“The Walton’s concerto was one of the first works to show what the viola could really do,” said Lehmann. “No longer relegated to slow or melancholy speeches, here it is treated with a virtuosity often expected of the brighter and sprightlier violin, yet it never loses the noble qualities that make the viola, with its rich and mellifluous tone, such a special instrument.”
The collaboration on Walton’s concerto with his spouse, Kimberly Lehmann, is unique, Lehmann said, because unlike most soloists whom he only met once prior to the first orchestral rehearsal, he had the pleasure of hearing his wife rehearse for months at home.
“After years of performing together, we also have developed an intuition-based mutual respect, trust and experience,” Lehmann said.
After Walton’s Viola Concerto, the audience will hear Peer Gynt Suites 1 and 2 by Norwegian composer and pianist Edvard Grieg.
Grieg composed the Peer Gynt music upon the invitation of his friend and fellow-Scandinavian artist Henrik Ibsen, who wrote the stage play of the same name. The music of Peer Gynt has grown to be Grieg’s most famous composition and excerpts of it are frequently heard in popular culture such as movies, games, and commercials.
Kimberly Lehmann performs with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, teaches violin and viola at the Portland Conservatory, and frequently appears with the NSPO. In 2013, she and Robert Lehmann were the featured soloists with the NSPO performing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante.
Kimberly Lehmann has been a member of the South Dakota Symphony, the Colorado Springs Symphony and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. She has performed with the Eastman Philharmonia in residence at the Heidelberg Schlossfestspiele, at the National Orchestral Institute, and with the Boston Academy of Music.
Lehmann grew up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and earned her bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree in violin performance from the Eastman School of Music.
Out of concern for the health and safety of all musicians and audience members, the NSPO requires all patrons attending the concert to present proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test no more than 72 hours prior to the concert or a home tests within 24 hours of the concert. Patrons will be required to wear masks and socially distance themselves in the auditorium.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at nspo.org or at the door before the performance at $30 for an adult ticket and $25 for a senior or a student. Children under 13 can attend the concert for free.