On 31 March B’Rock Orchestra perform Anna Meredith’s Anno at the Tongyeong International Music Festival. Nadja Zwiener is soloist in the 50-minute re-contextualisation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for violin, strings, harpsichord, and electronics, with the composer at the mixing desk for the work’s South Korean debut.
The 2016 piece draws on movements omitted from Vivaldi’s original, whilst also editing and re-naming performance directions in his score. Meredith overlays and surrounds this music with her own electronic compositions and soundscapes. Listen to the Scottish Ensemble recording of Anno here.
Anno premiered with video and designs by Eleanor Meredith: a series of sixteen films that explore the concept of experiencing a year within an hour. The creation of the piece by Scottish Ensemble and Spitalfields Festival in 2016 was captured in a short documentary available to watch online here. A 2023 performance of the work at the Cheltenham Festival saw the stage adorned by a foliage installation by Leaf Creative adding to the visual drama. Excerpts from Anno have also been choreographed by Elisabeth Schilling as part of Florescence in Decay at the Grand Théâtre Luxembourg; it also featured in Katie Mitchell’s lockdown project A New Dark Age for the Royal Opera House in 2020.
Its other exponents have included Aurora Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, who gave its US premiere in 2021 with Louis Langrée; it has appeared at the Cheltenham Festival and Edinburgh International Festival.