The Full Works Concert - Thursday 2 October, 8pm

Catherine Bott marks the day's anniversaries with great music from Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Haydn, Vivaldi and George Butterworth.

Tonight on the Full Works Concert, Catherine Bott explores a fascinating range of musical anniversaries, including Johann Strauss II taking over from Johann Senior as conductor of the Vienna Strauss Orchestra, on this day in 1849. Catherine has his most famous waltz tonight.

The Mariinsky Theatre, home of opera and ballet in St. Petersburg, opened on 2 October 1860. The previous building had burned to the ground the year before. Many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres there. Since 1988, Valery Gergiev has served as the theatre's general director. We hear him conducting Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.2, with the brilliant Denis Matsuev as soloist.

Also on 2 October 1958, Leonard Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic for the first time as the orchestra’s only music director. He conducts the music of Haydn this evening.

Today is also the 70th birthday of Ton Koopman, the Dutch conductor, organist and harpsichordist. We hear him directing a performance of Vivaldi's  Concerto in G minor for two cellos, with Yo-Yo Ma and Jonathan Manson as soloists. 

George Butterworth's orchestral rhapsody A Shropshire Lad was premiered at Leeds Festival on this day in 1913. Butterworth did not write a great deal of music, and before and during the First World War he destroyed many works he did not care for, in case he should not return and have the chance to revise them. Of those that survive, his works based on A. E. Housman's collection of poems are among the best known.

Johann Strauss II: By the Beautiful Blue Danube Opus 314
Daniel Barenboim conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra 

Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.2 in G major Opus 44
Piano: Denis Matsuev
Valery Gergiev conducts the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No.86 in D minor
Leonard Bernstein conducts the New York Philharmonic Orchestra

Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto in G minor for 2 Cellos RV.531
Cellos: Yo-Yo Ma, Jonathan Manson
Ton Koopman conducts the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra

George Butterworth: A Shropshire Lad
Mark Elder conducts the Halle Orchestra