Wagner: Siegfried Idyll (18')

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491 (30')

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Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 60 (34')

 

Mozart’s dramatic Piano Concerto K. 491 is paired here with Beethoven’s majestic 4th symphony. The program opens with Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, a deeply lyrical work written on the occasion of the birth of his son and incorporating musical ideas from his Ring Cycle. Beethoven was Wagner’s idol and this stormy Mozart Concerto in particular paves the way towards Beethoven’s pathbreaking works. A program of interconnected masterpieces, each illuminating the other.

 

Mendelssohn: The Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave), Op. 26 (10')

Mozart: Piano Concerto K. 488 (26')

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Takemitsu: Requiem for Strings (9')

Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 (29')

 

The Hebrides Overture, one of the first romantic tone-poems, is Mendelssohn’s inspired portrait of the islands off the Western coast of Scotland. Mozart’s beloved Concerto K. 488 is full of sunshine as well as some of his most poignantly melancholy music. Takemitsu’s Requiem, the work that won him the admiration of Stravinsky and launched his international career, is both lyrical and elegiac. In contrast, Beethoven’s 8th Symphony harks back to the witty charm of Haydn, but its boisterous bluster is truly Beethovenian.