Concert

Johannes Brahms’s violin concerto is a work of symphonic proportions and romantic lyricism; a profound dialogue between two equal partners: solo violin and full symphony orchestra. Written for his close friend, Joseph Joachim, the concerto is famously difficult; the conductor Hans von Bülow reportedly joked that it was composed ‘against’ the violin, because of its virtuosity. But the music triumphs, from the noble grandeur of the first movement to the boisterous Hungarian-style rondo, with a sublime Adagio in between, the opening of which is surely one of the most beautiful woodwind passages ever written.

Perhaps the most dazzling example of the tone poem in the repertoire, Richard Strauss’s ‘Don Juan’, was written in 1888 when he was just 24 and in love. After the première in Weimar in 1889, he wrote proudly to his father of the ‘immense glow and sumptuousness’ of the sound. The work begins with a famous upward orchestral flourish as Don Juan bursts onto the scene and begins his optimistic search for ‘the ideal woman’. By turns exuberant, heroic, tender and passionate, the tale unfolds in a magnificent display of youthful energy and inspired orchestration.

Strauss’s Rosenkavalier Suite was premièred in the USA in 1944.  The arranger (who was not Strauss) used material from Strauss’s opera to create a suite in full-blooded late 19^th century style, portraying scenes, moods and characters from the opera, and featuring glorious waltzes which transport us back to the opulence and splendour of Vienna’s golden age.

Ticket Information

Admission: £20, £10 (students), £6 (under 14)