Blaze Ensemble
George Vass – conductor
Mathilde Milwidsky – violin

The Programme

.

Violin Concerto No 2 in D major, K211
I. Allegro moderato
II. Andante
III. Rondeau: Allegro

Symphony No 29 in A major, K201
I. Allegro moderato
II. Andante
III. Menuetto: Allegretto – Trio
IV. Allegro con spirito

The Artists

Blaze Ensemble is a London-based chamber ensemble, whose performances range from works for small wind ensemble through to chamber orchestra. The group was formed in 1997 and currently gives up to five concerts each season. As well performing staples from the wind and string chamber ensemble repertoire, Blaze Ensemble has commissioned new works from the UK’s most established contemporary composers. In recent seasons, Blaze Ensemble has given the first London performance of Chris Gunning’s Concertino for Flute and small orchestra (at St Brides), and the first performance of Adrian Sutton’s ‘Montana Peaks’ for chamber ensemble. Blaze Ensemble has also performed several premieres of works by Paul Pritchard including ‘Imaginarium’, ‘Two Irish Songs and Other Dances’, ‘Fire Dances’ and the revised version of the semi-staged work, ‘Green Man Ho!’.

Respected English conductor George Vass studied at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Music, London. Artistic Director of the renowned Presteigne Festival since 1992, Vass served the Hampstead & Highgate Festival in a similar capacity (2004-09). He made his professional debut at St John’s Smith Square in 1979 and, as Artistic Director of the Regent Sinfonia of London and Orchestra Nova, has appeared at many of the UK’s major concert halls and leading festivals.

Named a 2023 Classic FM Rising Star and One to Watch by Gramophone Magazine, British violinist Mathilde Milwidsky has been praised by The Strad’s Charlotte Gardner for her “perfect intonation and beautiful shaping and colouring, comprehensively nailing each new stylistic and emotional universe as she went”. In 2019 she was awarded 3rd Prize and a Special Prize at the prestigious Windsor Festival International String Competition and in 2021 and 2022 Mathilde was invited to the Verbier Festival Academy on the Soloist & Chamber Music Programme, as one of only seven violinists chosen worldwide.