The Full Works Concert - Wednesday 10 July: London Symphony Orchestra Week

In her third Full Works Concert for London Symphony Orchestra Week on Classic FM, Jane Jones presents a mix of classical and contemporary favourites.

Tonight, for the third of her Full Works Concerts delving into the discography of the London Symphony Orchestra, Jane Jones shows off the versatility of the orchestra as it plays music ranging from Mozart to McCartney.

The concert opens with Mendelssohn's Symphony No.4 in A major - known as the Italian Symphony. Soon after Mendelssohn's first visit to Britain, he went off to Italy as part of the same European tour. The buoyant and optimistic mood with which the work immediately begins bears all the hallmarks of a happy young man, eager to make his mark on the world and express his travels through music. Claudio Abbado takes the helm of the LSO for this performance.

Paul McCartney's composition Spiral began life as a piano piece but was later orchestrated by Richard Rodney Bennett and recorded in 1998.

The great English clarinettist Thea King joins the LSO for a performance of the first Clarinet Concerto by Bernhard Crusell. This requires a truly virtuosic performance that blends technical brilliance with lyricism. On this recording, the LSO sounds marvellous.

Delius's Summer Evening was the first of three small tone poems dating from 1889-90 that Sir Thomas Beecham discovered among Delius's unpublished manuscripts and unearthed specially for inclusion in a 1946 festival. The LSO is conducted by Barry Wordsworth

Mozart's Piano Concerto No.27 in B flat major was the last piano concerto he wrote and came some time after the series of highly successful concertos that Mozart wrote for his own concerts. By the time of its premiere Mozart was no longer so prominent a performer on the public stage. It was probably premiered in March 1791, and by the end of the year the composer was dead. It's played tonight by Rudolf Serkin.

Tonight's concert finishes with a rousing rendition of Kenneth J. Alford's Colonel Bogey, put to brilliant use in the David Lean film, The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No.4 in A major (‘Italian’)
London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Claudio Abbado

Paul McCartney: Spiral
London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Lawrence Foster

Bernhard Crusell: Clarinet Concerto No.1 in E flat major
Clarinet: Thea King
London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Alun Francis

Frederick Delius: Summer Evening
London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Barry Wordsworth

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No.27 in B flat major
London Symphony Orchestra
Piano: Rudolf Serkin
Conductor: Claudio Abbado

Kenneth J. Alford: Colonel Bogey
London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Richard Hickox