The Full Works Concert – Tuesday 28 May: Spring Releases
This week's Full Works Concerts kick off with some of the finest classical recordings recently released.
Tonight's concert starts with a Mozart Oboe concerto - played on the flute! Mozart made the arrangement himself to fulfil a commission - Dutch flautist Ferdinand De Jean asked Mozart for three concertos and for one of them, instead of creating a new concerto, Mozart rearranged an oboe concerto he had written the year before, tinkering with it to make it sound more 'flute-like'. De Jean apparently didn't pay Mozart for the concerto because he didn't deem it an original work. Tonight it's played with great verve by another Dutchman Jacques Zoon, who is the principal flautist with the Orchestra Mozart, conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Superstar violinist Joshua Bell has recently 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. ‘If you have the right chemistry and the right language with an orchestra, you can give quite a bit of information to the ensemble from the first violin chair,' Bell says. 'Of course, there are limitations to the cues you can give when you’re just playing, so there are many times during a performance when I don’t play but rather conduct using my bow as a sort of baton.' This evening, Jane plays their terrific, high-energy recording of the fourth symphony.
Jane's choice of Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence is a new live recording of the work in its original setting for small string ensemble. The young French-Romanian violinist Sarah Nemtanu is joined by principals from the Orchestre National de France. This live performance took place in Paris last September.
The concert concludes with Emmanuel Chabrier's Suite Pastorale from a new album of Neeme Jarvi conducting the music of Chabrier with the Orchestra of the Suisse Romande. It was recorded in Geneva's Victoria Hall, a venue where the great Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet himself recorded many of his acclaimed performances. The location has lost none of its vivid acoustic. The Suite Pastorale is an orchestration of four of Chabrier's 'Dix Pièces pittoresques' for piano. Its ‘Idylle’ movement reportedly inspired Poulenc to become a composer. The rest is high-spirited, intensely colourful orchestral music.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Flute Concerto in D major
Flute: Jacques Zoon
Claudio Abbado conducts Orchestra Mozart
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.4 in B flat major
Joshua Bell directs the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields from the violin
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky: Souvenir de Florence
Sarah Nemtanu, Luc Hery, Sabine Toutain, Christophe Gaugue, Raphael Perraud, Jean-Luc Bourre
Emmanuel Chabrier: Suite Pastorale
Neeme Jarvi conducts the Orchestra of the Suisse Romande
