The Full Works Concert - Tuesday 3 December 2013

The Piano Quintet in F minor by Brahms provides a stunning conclusion to tonight's programme of masterpieces.

For his Introduction and Allegro for Strings - which kicks off tonight’s concert – Elgar drew upon material from numerous notebooks, which he kept with him at all times. Four years previously, during a bracing walk along the Cardiganshire coast, he had heard a distant choir, and had stashed the idea away for a possible ‘Welsh Rhapsody’ of some sort. In the end, the Welsh piece never came, so he borrowed the tune for this work, which features both a string quartet and a string orchestra. 

Vaughan Williams' most popular piece The Lark Ascending was written in 1914 but the outbreak of World War I meant the composer had to put its premiere on hold. It was given in 1921 by the violinist Marie Hall – the woman for whom Vaughan Williams had written it. 

The Symphony No.91 in E flat major by Joseph Haydn was completed in 1788 as part of a three-symphony commission by Comte d'Ogny for the Concerts de la Loge Olympique. It is occasionally referred to as The Letter T referring to an earlier method of cataloguing Haydn's symphonic output. 

Brahms's Piano Quintet in F minor was dedicated to Her Royal Highness the Princess Anna of Hesse and by Rhine. Like most piano quintets composed after Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet, it is written for piano and string quartet. The work began life as a string quintet, was later transcribed into a sonata for two pianos before receiving its final form. Both piano and strings play an equally important role throughout this work.
 

Edward Elgar: Introduction and Allegro for Strings
Colin Davis conducts the London Symphony Orchestra |

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Laudate Dominum
Soprano: Barbara Bonney
Trevor Pinnock conducts the English Concert 

Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Violin: Pinchas Zukerman
Daniel Barenboim conducts the English Chamber Orchestra

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No.91 in E flat major
Rene Jacobs conducts the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra

Johannes Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor
Piano: Lars Vogt
Strings: Christian Tetzlaff, Julian Steckel, Veronika Eberle, Hanna Weinmeister