Fate & Fortune
Location: Exeter
Date: 15-03-2012
Time: 19:30
Venue Details: The Great Hall
Works Performed
- Mozart : Idomeneo Overture
- Mozart : Piano Concerto No.25 K503
- Tchaikovsky : Symphony No. 5
Performers
- Conductor : Leo Hussain
- Soloist: Francesco Piemontesi (Piano)
The concise overture to Idomeneo is richly orchestrated, of extraordinary melodic beauty, impassioned yet possessing a degree of true pathos. It is in one movement, with short ceremonial introductory and concluding passages, and as in the case of most of Mozart's other overtures this creates the mood of the ensuing drama with finely conceived touches of characterisation.
Of all Mozart’s piano concertos, this is the biggest, grandest and most sonorous. Separating itself from the tragic manner of its immediate predecessor, it represents the C major summit of the 30-year-old composer's Viennese style. It is a masterpiece not only magisterial but moving – broad and splendid, yet keenly detailed.
As he began this symphony, Tchaikovsky feared his muse was exhausted. "I am dreadfully anxious to prove not only to others, but also to myself, that I am not yet played out as a composer." He worked doggedly on it, ignoring illness, the premature encroachment of old age (he was only 48) and his self-doubts, and although it achieved popular and critical success, it was over a year before he himself recognised its true worth.
"a searing performance, conducted by a first-rate Leo Hussain."
Glasgow Herald
