Astra

George Balint, Angel-Cloud (2014-18) Concert poem for solo violin and choir with solo voices - first performance
Dan Dediu, Lux aeterna (1996) Concerto for solo mezzo-soprano and 8-part choir
Livia Teodorescu, Prayer of Queen Marie for the dead (2019) solo mezzo-soprano, solo violin and choir - first performance
with works by Radu Paladi and Sebastian Androne

Astra’s long standing link with Romanian composers continues with works from three generations, including world premieres from George Balint and Livia Teodorescu.

Three works form a kind of solo concerto with choral accompaniment. George Balint’s wordless Angel-Cloud is ‘ideatically’ based on a poem by the composer, a rhapsody for solo violin with choir. It is dedicated to the Astra Choir and its conductor. Dan Dediu’s Lux aeterna from the 1990s, premiered by Astra in 2012, is subtitled Concerto for solo mezzo-soprano and choir. Livia Teodorescu combines the two soloists in her adapted movement from a recent oratorio, made
specially for this concert.

The Astra Choir is joined by two outstanding guest performers, Elizabeth Campbell (mezzo-soprano) and Erkki Veltheim (violin).