The Full Works Concert - Monday 28 April 2014

Delius goes to Florida and Schumann visits Rhineland in tonight's Concert.

Tonight's Concert opens with Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, one of the most famous pieces of Baroque organ music ever written - with a particularly iconic opening. However there are now strong reasons to suggest that this celebrated work was not originally in D minor, nor written for the organ. It might have been written for violin or harpsichord, and some scholars say it's too crude a piece to have been written by Bach at all. No original manuscript survives, so perhaps we'll never clear up the mystery.

The four-movement Florida Suite is the earliest orchestral work of Frederick Delius - pictured above - and was inspired by his youthful residence on a Florida orange plantation. It's a much underrated, seldomly played work, full of rich, orchestral colour.

Boccherini was a talented cellist who wrote twelve concertos for his instrument. They are all quite youthful works, yet they demand virtuoso playing to cope with extremely fast passage-work in the highest registers of the instrument. His Cello Concerto No.5 in E flat major is played tonight by the brilliant Yo-Yo Ma.

Schumann's Symphony No. 3, known as the 'Rhenish' is the last of the composer's symphonies to be written, although not the last published. It was premiere in February 1851 in Düsseldorf, conducted by Schumann himself, was received with mixed reviews, 'ranging from praise without qualification to bewilderment'. However, members of the audience applauded between every movement, and especially at the end of the work when the orchestra joined them in congratulating Schumann by shouting 'hurrah!' Schumann was inspired to write this symphony after a trip to the Rhineland with his wife Clara. This journey was a happy and peaceful trip which felt to them as if they were on a pilgrimage. As a result of this trip, he incorporated elements of his journey and portrayed other experiences from his life in the music.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Toccata & Fugue in D minor BWV.565
Organ: William McVicker

Frederick Delius: Florida Suite
David Lloyd-Jones conducts the Orchestra of Opera North

Luigi Boccherini: Cello Concerto No.5 in D major G.478
Cello: Yo-Yo Ma 
Ton Koopman conducts the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra

Robert Schumann: Symphony No.3 in Eb major Opus 97 'Rhenish'
Philippe Herreweghe conducts the Orchestra of the Champs-Elysees