The Full Works Concert - Wednesday 22 January 2014

Tonight's concert features classics from Prokofiev, Albinoni and Rodrigo - and a 21st century piece that has become a Classic FM Hall of Fame favourite.

Tonight's concert opens with Prokofiev’s Symphony No.1. Known as the ‘Classical’ symphony, Prokofiev (pictured) was 26 when he composed it and had a very clear plan when it came to writing the work: ‘I thought that if Haydn were alive today he would compose just as he did before, but at the same time would include something new in his manner of composition. I wanted to compose such a symphony: a symphony in the classical style’. The work has become one of the most popular symphonies for listeners and players alike.

The 16 oboe concertos of Tomaso Albinoni, eight for one oboe and eight for two oboes, were the earliest such works by an Italian composer to be published. They are also, perhaps, the most unusual and individual instrumental works Albinoni ever wrote. In his concertos the oboes function, in their relationship to the strings, almost like singers. Tonight we hear the Oboe Concerto in Bb major Opus 9 No.11.

Like Prokofiev, it was to an earlier composer that Rodrigo was looking for inspiration when he wrote his Fantasia Para un Gentilhombre - the 17th-century Spanish priest and musician Gaspar Sanz, who put together a sort of guitarists’ manual in 1674. This zesty, dance-filled concerto owes its success not just to Sanz, but to the inclusion of all sorts of Baroque dance forms, which many other composers of Rodrigo’s day were disregarding.  

The concert ends with Stuart Mitchell's Seven Wonders - Suite for Orchestra. Edinburgh-born Mitchell began his musical career exploring jazz and synthesiser music. The Seven Wonders suite was his first major classical CD release in 2005 and has since been a fixture on the Classic FM Hall of Fame, regularly requested by listeners.

Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No.1 in D major Opus 25
Neeme Jarvi conducts Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Tomaso Albinoni: Oboe Concerto in Bb major Opus 9 No.11
Oboe: Heinz Holliger
I Musici 

Joaquin Rodrigo Fantasia Para un Gentilhombre
Guitar: John Williams
Louis Fremaux conducts Philharmonia Orchestra 

Stuart Mitchell: Seven Wonders - Suite for Orchestra
Sopranos: Pavla Zejbalova, Ildiko Szabo
Mario Klemens conducts the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the Kuhn Mixed Choir