Brahms’ First Symphony

After 30 years in the top flight of the world’s violinists, Tasmin Little is retiring as a soloist. One of the most engaging performers you’ll see, she’ll be hugely missed. For her final curtain call she’ll be playing Mozart’s sublimely lyrical Fourth Violin Concerto, one of four for the instrument that he wrote in 1775, and which signalled a new level of creativity in his writing.

The rest of the programme combines Russian drama with Germanic passion. Borodin’s opera Prince Igor was left incomplete when he died but its lively, free-flowing overture has never lost its appeal. Brahms’s First Symphony may have taken over twenty years to complete, so fearful was he of being unfavourably compared with Beethoven, but its titanic opening, driven by thunderous timpani and thrilling, soaring strings, immediately blows away any doubts. It features an achingly beautiful slow movement and genial allegretto, leading to a magnificent finale featuring one of the most stirring melodies in orchestral music.

Pre-concert talk 6.30- 7pm Dr Keith Chapin illustrates and discusses the programme