The Full Works Concert - Friday 21 February 2014
A cello concerto from a friend of Mozart's, and Brahms' Second Symphony provide the climax to this week's Full Works Concerts.
Vivaldi composed his Gloria in D probably around 1715, for the choir of the Ospedale della Pietà, the home for girls where he worked. Vivaldi, a priest, music teacher and virtuoso violinist, composed many sacred works for the Ospedale, where he spent most of his career, as well as hundreds of instrumental concertos to be played by the girls’ orchestra. This, his most famous choral piece, presents the traditional Gloria from the Latin Mass. The wonderfully sunny nature of the Gloria, with its distinctive melodies and rhythms, is characteristic of all of Vivaldi’s music, giving it an immediate and universal appeal.
Josef Mysliveček (pictured) was a Czech composer who had a big influence on the development of late 18th century classical music. Originally a great friend of Mozart and his father, Mysliveček created models to emulate for symphonic structure, opera, and violin concertos. The Mozarts fell out with him in 1770 when he betrayed their trust over the promise of an operatic commission for Wolfgang in Naples. Tonight we hear Mysliveček's Cello Concerto in C major, which began life as a violin concerto and was then re-arranged.
Smouldering latin passions follow with Manuel de Falla's 7 Spanish Popular Songs. Alison Balsom plays them with exhilarating verve.
The Second Symphony by Brahms was composed in the summer of 1877 during a visit the composer made to a town in the Austrian province of Carinthia. Its composition was brief in comparison with the 15 years it took Brahms to complete his First Symphony. Its cheery and almost pastoral mood often invites comparison with Beethoven's Sixth but, perhaps mischievously, Brahms wrote to his publisher that the symphony "is so melancholy that you will not be able to bear it. I have never written anything so sad, and the score must come out in mourning.'
Antonio Vivaldi: Gloria in D major RV.589
Soloists: Anna Simboli, Alena Dantcheva, Nicholas Robinson, Sara Mingardo
Rinaldo Alessandrini conducts Concerto Italiano
Josef Myslivecek: Cello Concerto in C major
Wendy Warner directs Camerata Chicago from the cello
Manuel de Falla: 7 Spanish Popular Songs
Trumpet: Alison Balsom
Edward Gardner conducts the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No.2 in D major Opus 73
Vladimir Jurowski conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra
