The Full Works Concert - Wednesday 18 September 2013

Howard Goodall's Eternal Light: A Requiem is the climax of tonight's Concert.

Tonight's concert features major works by Mozart and Beethoven and climaxes with a magnificent choral work by Classic FM's very own Howard Goodall.

Mozart
's Flute Concerto in G major was written in 1778 for the Dutch flute player Ferdinand De Jean. Mozart was supposed to provide four flute quartets and three flute concertos for De Jean, yet he only completed two of the three concertos.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 in C was dedicated to Baron Gottfried van Swieten, an early patron of the composer. The symphony is clearly indebted to Beethoven's predecessors, particularly his teacher Joseph Haydn as well as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but nonetheless has characteristics that mark it uniquely as Beethoven's work, notably the frequent loud passages and the prominent, more independent use of wind instruments.

A brief interlude for saxophone and piano follows. Amy Dickson plays Sergei Rachmaninov's Vocalise.

Eternal Light: A Requiem by Howard Goodall was commissioned by London Musici to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2008. Talking about composing the work, Goodall said, 'Most requiems are based, one way or another, on the medieval church’s Mass for the Dead, which is made up of a series of sections beginning with the ‘Kyrie Eleison’ and ending with ‘In Paradisum’. Although the traditional requiem text calls for ‘eternal peace, rest and light’ for those who have died, it also emphasises judgement and everlasting damnation for anyone who transgresses the Roman Catholic Church’s code of behaviour, as seen from the perspective of the Middle Ages. I did not feel at ease with this approach to the appalling pain of loss and grief, so in an attempt to provide some solace for the living that mourn, I stripped down the old Latin texts to a few phrases in each movement and laid beside them words from English poems from across the last 500 years.'



Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Flute Concerto in G major

Flute: James Galway
Rudolf Baumgartner conducts the Lucerne Festival Strings

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.1 in C major
Christopher Hogwood conducts the Academy of Ancient Music

Sergei Rachmaninov: Vocalise
Saxophone: Amy Dickson
Piano: Catherine Milledge

Howard Goodall: Eternal Light: A Requiem
Soloists: Alfie Boe, Natasha Marsh, Christopher Maltman
Stephen Darlington conducts London Musici and the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford