Causeway Chamber Orchestra - Unearthing Masterworks

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Join the Causeway Chamber Orchestra as we uncover some of the greatest musical treasures of the nineteenth century. 'Unearthing Masterworks' celebrates the composers whose music was rediscovered, revived, and championed by Felix Mendelssohn, alongside one of his own finest concert works. Through his vision as a conductor, scholar, and composer, Mendelssohn transformed the concert repertoire, restoring the music of Johann Sebastian Bach to public life and helping secure Franz Schubert's place among the great masters. Led by the orchestra's founder Luca J. Imperiale and joined by outstanding young artists, the CCO presents an evening of discovery, inspiration, and enduring musical brilliance.

Franz Schubert's Overture in C minor for strings is an early masterpiece of dramatic energy and lyrical beauty. Composed while Schubert was still a teenager, it reveals a remarkable command of Classical form infused with the expressive warmth and melodic richness that would become hallmarks of his music. Although largely neglected during his lifetime, Schubert's works were championed by Mendelssohn, whose performances helped bring them to a wider audience.

Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata Ich habe genug, BWV 82, is one of the composer's most moving and contemplative sacred works. Its profound spirituality and sublime vocal writing embody the expressive depth that so captivated Mendelssohn. His famous 1829 revival of Bach's St Matthew Passion sparked the nineteenth-century Bach renaissance, ensuring that masterpieces such as Ich habe genug would once again be heard and cherished throughout Europe.

The concert concludes with Felix Mendelssohn's dramatic scena Infelice, Op. 94, in its London version. Written for soprano and orchestra during the final year of his life, the work combines operatic drama with exquisite lyricism and refined orchestral writing. It stands as a testament to a composer who not only created masterpieces of his own but also reshaped musical history by bringing the masterpieces of the past back to life.