The Full Works Concert - Monday 30 December 2013

Jane Jones takes a look at some of the outstanding recorded performances released in 2013.

Tonight, Jane Jones reviews the year just ending and plays full works from the very best classical albums released during 2013.

The concert opens with Mozart's Horn Concerto No.2 in Eb major. This latest album on the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's own label features their Principal Horn Roger Montgomery as soloist. He plays the notoriously difficult valveless horn with extreme skill.

Nigel Hess's Shakespeare Pictures comes from the popular album New London Pictures, showcasing works for symphonic wind orchestra. The three Shakespeare Pictures - based on Much Ado about Nothing, The Winter's Tale, and Julius Caesar - show off the multi-faceted capabilities of the band, from dazzling trumpet solos to tender flute duets.

Following his 2011 landmark Beethoven symphonic cycle, Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra returned with new recordings of the complete Brahms symphonies as well as other orchestral works including overtures. Chailly brings a fresh, new and dramatic reading to Brahms' Tragic Overture.

Portraits – The Clarinet Album was the debut recording from the brilliant young Austrian clarinettist (and part-time model) Andreas Ottensamer (pictured). Tonight we hear him play Louis Spohr's first clarinet concerto.

Max Bruch's Kol Nidrei is played tonight by Alisa Weilerstein with Daniel Barenboim conducting Staatskapelle Berlin. Weilerstein's rich, expressive tone is perfectly suited to Bruch's soul-stirring piece.

Superstar violinist Joshua Bell this year released his first recording as Music Director of the Academy of St.Martin in the Fields. He leads the orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 from the violin, both directing and playing the lead violin role. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Horn Concerto No.2 in Eb major
Horn: Roger Montgomery
Margaret Faultless conducts Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment 

Nigel Hess: Shakespeare Pictures
Nigel Hess conducts Central Band of the Royal Air Force 

Johannes Brahms: Tragic Overture
Riccardo Chailly conducts Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

Louis Spohr: Clarinet Concerto No.1 in C minor 
Clarinet: Andreas Ottensamer
Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducts Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

Max Bruch: Kol Nidrei
Cello: Alisa Weilerstein
Daniel Barenboim conducts Staatskapelle Berlin

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.4 in Bb major
Joshua Bell directs Academy of St. Martin in the Fields