Mendelssohn Octet in E Flat Major, Op. 20

Rachmaninoff's relationship with the symphony as a genre was famously complicated. The catastrophic premiere of his First Symphony is legendary: a badly prepared orchestra, a possibly drunk conductor, and critics who were ready to plunge a knife into the young composer's self-con ...  Show more

When the great pianist and composer Frederic Chopin decided to write a piano sonata in 1837, fashions had turned against the genre itself. Perhaps it was a feeling that Beethoven had essentially "finished" the genre, or perhaps it was a sense that a non-Germanic composer couldn't ...  Show more

This Etude is comes from a set of Etudes that Liszt originally composed in his youth, but later revised to become 12 of the most technically challenging works for the piano. This is the eighth in the set. The etudes were composed in 1851 and published the following year. They wer ...  Show more

When Mendelssohn wrote his Violin Concerto in 1844 he could hardly have imagined how famous and well loved it would become. In this programme, people tell how it has played an important part in their lives. Violinist Daniel Hope tells how he got caught practising this concerto se ...  Show more

1. The Four Seasons: "Spring" Concerto No. 1: I. Allegro 2. The Four Seasons: "Spring" Concerto No. 1: II. Largo 3:33 3. The Four Seasons: "Spring" Concerto No. 1: III. Allegro Pastorale 6:22 4. The Four Seasons: "Summer" Concerto No. 2: I. Allegro 10:27 5. The Four Seasons: "Sum ...  Show more