The Full Works Concert: Monday 9 February 2015, 8pm

Mozart, Gershwin, Schubert, Bach and Patrick Hawes are all composers who made it into the 2014 Hall of Fame - and they're all featured in the concert tonight.

Throughout February, the Full Works Concert is featuring some of the most popular works that appeared in the 2014 Classic FM Hall of Fame.

The concert opens with the overture to Mozart's The Magic Flute (pictured), which received its first performance in Vienna in September 1791. Mozart conducted the orchestra and his collaborator Schikaneder played Papageno. Although there were no reviews of the first performance, the opera drew immense crowds and proved to be very popular - which it still is.

Jane Jones continues with George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. In 1924, the American bandleader Paul Whiteman wanted to prove that jazz styles could have as much clout as the classics by staging a concert which he labeled an 'experiment in modern music'. Gershwin was commissioned to write a piece for solo piano and jazz band combining elements of classical music with jazz-influenced styles. The piece put Gershwin firmly on the map. It's played tonight by the pianist Simone Dinnerstein.

As a 19-year old in Vienna, Schubert began both a law degree and composing his Symphony No.5. This might well have been the work that prompted the composer to drop out of studying law. It is the perfect piece for anyone who wants to get into his music – fresh, light, full of youthful exuberance and bursting with melodies. 

In the spring of 1721, Bach was contemplating changing jobs and, after a chance meeting with the Margrave of Brandenburg, Bach sent him a set of six concertos that he had already written - possibly as a kind of audition. The Margrave appears to have completely ignored the gift and the set were discarded in his library until his death in 1734. They were found in the Brandenburg archives during the 19th century. Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, which we will hear tonight, is played by Rinaldo Alessandrini with Concerto Italiano.

Patrick Hawes was commissioned by HRH The Prince of Wales to write the Highgrove Suite in 2009. It began as a one-movement work for harp and strings and was premiered at Covent Garden on the Prince’s 60th birthday by the royal harpist Claire Jones and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Three new pieces for the same forces completed the suite, each one inspired by an aspect of Prince Charles's garden at Highgrove House.


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Magic Flute, Overture
Claudio Abbado conducts the Mahler Chamber Orchestra

George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Piano: Simone Dinnerstein
Kristjan Jarvi conducts the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra

Franz Schubert: Symphony No.5 in B-flat major
Thomas Dausgaard conducts the Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No.5
Rinaldo Alessandrini conducts Concerto Italiano

Patrick Hawes: Highgrove Suite
Patrick Hawes conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra