The Full Works Concert - Wednesday 5 March 2014

Beethoven's evergreen Pastoral Symphony is the climax of tonight's Full Works Concert.

Tonight's concert opens with Vivaldi's Guitar Concerto in D major. It's one of the finest examples of Vivaldi's concertos with a beautiful second movement. Tonight it's played by Ugo Orlandi with Claudio Scimone conducting I Solisti Veneti.

The String Quartet No. 1 in D major was Tchaikovsky's first completed string quartet. An earlier attempt had been abandoned after he finished the first movement. The sad Andante cantabile movement, which has become famous in its own right, was based on a folk song Tchaikovsky heard at his sister's house whistled by a house painter. When the quartet was performed at a tribute concert for Leo Tolstoy, the author was said to have been brought to tears by this movement.

Haydn's Keyboard Concerto in G major is tonight played by Sebastian Knauer. Unlike Mozart, Haydn never made a living as a keyboard soloist but this, his fourth keyboard concerto, has an elaborate solo part through which the young German pianist delivers with grace and skill.

Originally dubbed 'recollections of life in the country', Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 is the composer's homage to the great outdoors. He was, in many ways, an urban man, known and revered in Vienna, and central to the city’s reputation within European culture at the time. And yet, as the five descriptively titled sections of this piece so amply prove, he also had a joyous view of the countryside and all it contains. The work is one of the first real examples of what became known as 'programme music': music that tells a specific story or paints an aural picture of a particular scene. Just one of the many ways in which Beethoven was a groundbreaking composer.

Antonio Vivaldi: Guitar Concerto in D major RV.93
Guitar: Ugo Orlandi
Claudio Scimone conducts I Solisti Veneti

Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky: String Quartet No.1 in D major Opus 11
Jerusalem String Quartet

Joseph Haydn: Keyboard Concerto in G major Hob.XVIII:4
Piano: Sebastian Knauer
Helmut Muller-Bruhl conducts Cologne Chamber Orchestra

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.6 in F major Opus 68 ‘Pastoral’
Kent Nagano conducts the Montreal Symphony Orchestra