The Full Works Concert - Tuesday 15 April 2014: Neville Marriner at 90

Jane Jones joins the Neville Marriner 90th birthday celebrations with some of the great conductor's most acclaimed recordings.

Today is Sir Neville Marriner’s 90th birthday and we’re marking it on Classic FM by playing nothing but his recordings for 24 hours. 

On the Full Works Concert this evening, Jane Jones chooses some of Sir Neville's most acclaimed recordings with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the ensemble he founded in 1958.

Mozart's complex and bright Symphony No.41 is known as the Jupiter symphony - but its name probably has nothing to do with Mozart. It was probably coined by the impresario Johann Peter Salomon and first used in a concert programme for the Philharmonic Society of London 26 years after Mozart died. The symphony was written by Mozart during a prolific seven-week spell in the summer of 1788 when he produced three fully formed symphonies.

The ever-popular Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo was named after a famous royal site on the shore of the River Tagus, not far from Madrid, along the road to Andalusia. The composer himself said, 'In its melody the perfume of magnolias lingers, the singing of birds and the gushing of fountains.'

Handel wrote his Water Music for an outdoor performance for King George I on the river Thames. The King watched from the royal barge with various dukes and duchesses as the 50 musicians played nearby. It's said he enjoyed the music so much, he asked the musicians to play the three suites three times over the course of the trip down the river.

Carl Maria von Weber's Concertino for Horn and Orchestra in E minor was composed in 1815. It is an extremely taxing work which requires, among other feats, that the player produce what is in effect a four-note chord using the interplay between humming and the sound from the instrument, a technique known as multiphonics. No one does it better than Barry Tuckwell with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No.41 in C major K.551
Neville Marriner conducts the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

Joaquin Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez
Guitar: Pepe Romero
Neville Marriner conducts the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

George Frideric Handel: Water Music Suite No.1 in F major
Neville Marriner conducts the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

Carl Maria Von Weber: Concertino for Horn & Orchestra Opus 45
French horn: Barry Tuckwell
Neville Marriner conducts the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields