A POPULAR orchestra will be joined by a top violinist later this month at The Anvil for an exciting evening of entertainment.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment will be joined by popular violinist Isabelle Faust later this month at The Anvil on Thursday, February 17.

The exciting programme begins with Mendelssohn’s Overture: The Hebrides, a vivid evocation of the sea and Scottish islands.

This will be followed by Schumann’s Violin Concerto, which is full of the composer’s personal lyricism and invention.

A strong influence on the later violin concerto of Brahms, its slow movement is particularly beautiful, and the piece as a whole is unjustly neglected.

The final piece of the evening is his second symphony, the most taut and dramatic of Schumann’s four, dating from around the time of the Piano Concerto. The lyrical slow movement leads to a jubilant finale.

The orchestra first started out more than three decades ago when a group of musicians formed a group.

They decided to do something different and they mixed up the rule books by not putting a single conductor in charge and deciding not to specialise in any particular era.

The band are known across the music scene for playing music on instruments(or replicas) from the time the music was written in a bid to make old music new.

Their name is inspired the Age of Enlightenment, the 18th century explosion of science, philosophy and music in Western Europe.

In 1987 they worked with Simon Rattle to bring a landmark production of Mozart’s opera called The Marriage of Figaro to Glyndebourne.

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They also secured a record contract with Virgin Classics, a broadcast agreement with the BBC.

The orchestra has now become a prominent fixture of the UK classical music scene and are well loved by many.

German violinist, Isabelle Faust, received her first violin lessons at the age of just five. Her father, a secondary school teacher, decided to learn the violin.

Tickets for the show are priced at £42, £38, £31, £24, £16.

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