Concerts & Tickets

Taken together, this and next week’s concerts make an intriguing pair. Mozart was always on Ravel’s mind, to the point of adulation; Beethoven had a more complicated effect on Brahms who was both fired up and inhibited by him when it came to writing symphonies. Beethoven’s Fourth sings with all the ardour and lyricism of the first Romantics (while Brahms’ Fourth is among the mellow fruits of late Romanticism), and Ravel’s brilliance  contrasts beautifully with the elegiac simplicity of Takemitsu’s miniature masterpiece – one of the SCO’s most widely performed commissions.

Writing for wind instruments was in Strauss’ blood. His father was an excellent horn player and the young composer grew up listening to him play with friends at home, and – maybe because of this – a glow of warmth and affection permeates every bar of his Sonatina. Dvořák’s suite, originally for orchestra, loses none of its folksy charm and sheer good spirits in this lovely arrangement.

A spring/autumn programme pairing perhaps the most youthful, joyful and uplifting of all Mozart’s piano concertos (a fine showpiece for the superb pianism of Lars Vogt) with Brahms’ deeply felt and richly hued symphony. His music speaks of the regrets and sorrows of old age, but also exudes an all-embracing warmth and consolation. Brahms was one of Webern’s essential inspirations, and if this short piece of his seems to represent everything Brahms is not… how fascinating is that? Especially as the two men lived in the same milieu
a matter of years apart.

Ravel never lost touch with his inner child, and his music brings an appropriately magical and fantastical flavour to this last concert before Christmas. Mother Goose, inspired by timeless fairy tales and originally written for  some young friends to play at the piano, is recreated here in miraculous orchestral colour. Langrée offers it in the company of the Grand Old Men of Ravel’s Paris: Saint-Saëns and Fauré in a lovely mixed programme that looks back as far as the 1780s when Haydn was all the rage in the French capital.