The Full Works Concert: Monday 23 March 2015, 8pm

Vienna is our destination for tonight’s Full Works Concert in this final week of concerts celebrating the Great Orchestras of the World.

Founded in 1842, the Vienna Philharmonic is widely considered to be one of the world's greatest orchestras. In 2006, it was chosen as Europe's finest in a major survey of leading publications, radio stations and newspapers.

GALLERY: Classical Music in Vienna - a spellbinding musical tour > 

Based at the Musikverein in Vienna, the members of the orchestra are chosen from the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. This process is a tortuous one, with each musician having to prove his or her capability for a minimum of three years' playing for the opera and ballet. Once this is achieved the musician can then ask the board of the Vienna Philharmonic to consider an application for a position in the orchestra.

The orchestra has attracted scores of the world's best-known conductors, including James Levine, Zubin Mehta and Claudio Abbado - all of whom we hear tonight - as well as Georg Solti, Riccardo Muti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Lorin Maazel, Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Leonard Bernstein, and Pierre Boulez.

Each New Year's Day since 1 January 1941, the Vienna Philharmonic has sponsored the New Year's Concerts, dedicated to the music of the Strauss family, and particularly that of Johann Strauss II. The first such concert was given on 31 December 1939. Since 1980 have been led by a variety of leading conductors invited by the orchestra. Tonight's concert ends with probably the Vienna Philharmonic's greatest hit from its New Year's offering.
 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Concerto No.2 in D major
Violin: Itzhak Perlman
James Levine conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.6 in F major (‘Pastoral’)
Claudio Abbado conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Frederic Chopin: Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor
Piano: Lang Lang
Zubin Mehta conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Johann Strauss I: Radetzky March
Zubin Mehta conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra