大象传媒

From the Victoria Hall in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent
Presented by Tom Redmond

Mendelssohn: Overture 'Ruy Blas'
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat (K 271)

8.15 CD
Mendelssohn: String Quartet No.12 in Eb major Op.12
Cherubini Quartet

8.35 Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 'Path茅tique'

When the cultured young Mendelssohn read Victor Hugo's play, 'Ruy Blas', which had been finished just the year earlier, he found it 'detestable'. But that didn't stop him writing a zesty overture to precede a performance of the play - for no fee, and in only three days! Martin James Bartlett joins Andrew Gourlay and the 大象传媒 Philharmonic for Mozart's Piano Concerto No.9; some say that this was the first of his works to show his true colours and maturity, hinting at what was yet to come in his music. Sometimes known by its twentieth-century nickname 'Jeunehomme' after a misspelling of the name of the pianist who commissioned the work, the Concerto allows the piano to make itself known at the start of the piece, a conversational device that Mozart never repeated in his piano concertos. The title of Tchaikovsky's 'Path茅tique' Symphony was suggested by his brother over dinner. In a letter to his publisher Tchaikovsky said "I give you my word of honour that never in my life have I been so contented, so proud, so happy, in the knowledge that I've written a good piece." He conducted the premiere just a week before he died, that tragedy seemingly predicted in the emotional involvement of the Symphony's closing Adagio lamentoso.

Martin James Bartlett (piano)
大象传媒 Philharmonic
Andrew Gourlay (conductor)