The Full Works Concert - Tuesday 16 December 2014, 8pm
Nicola Benedetti plays the gorgeous Korngold violin concerto and the Russian National Orchestra performs Rachmaninov's first symphony.
Among the easily recognisable Christmas carol themes encompassed in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Christmas Overture are God rest you merry gentlemen, Good King Wenceslas and . Arranged in 1925, some years after Coleridge-Taylor’s tragically early death, the music is thought to be derived from his incidental music for The Forest of Wild Thyme, a ‘charming poetical fairy drama’ for children by Alfred Noyes, intended for production in 1910, but not then performed.
Rachmaninov composed his first symphony between January and October 1895 at his country estate. The premiere, which took place on 28 March 1897 in St. Petersburg was an absolute disaster - it was under-rehearsed and the conductor Glazunov was reportedly drunk. Rachmaninov subsequently suffered a mental collapse but did not destroy or attempt to disown the score. It was left in Russia when he went into exile in 1917 and subsequently lost. In 1944, after the composer's death, the separate instrumental parts of the symphony were discovered and were used to reconstruct the full score. The symphony's second performance took place at the Moscow Conservatory in 1945. The symphony is now performed frequently and is considered one of the masterpieces of the Russian symphonic repertoire.
Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major includes the 'Alla Turca' which is often heard on its own and is one of Mozart's best-known piano pieces. The piece imitates the sound of Turkish Janissary bands, the music of which was much in vogue at that time.
The concert ends with Korngold 's Violin Concerto in D major. Nicola Benedetti brings out all of the intense emotion and romanticism of the concerto, for which Korngold drew on some of his outstanding movie scores.
Samuel Coleridge Taylor: Christmas Overture
Barry Wordsworth conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra
Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphony No.1 in D minor
Mikhail Pletnev conducts the Russian National Orchestra
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Sonata No.11
Piano: Lars Vogt
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Violin Concerto
Violin: Nicola Benedetti
Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
