Flower Power

The evening

Britten was asked to rework the delicate minuet from Mahler’s Third Symphony to help bring him to a wider audience. Whilst preserving the essence of Mahler – distilling his wonderment at natural beauty – Britten lightens the original orchestral forces and gives this reverie on flowers a greater intimacy, with almost Schubertian accents. Mozart’s E-flat Piano Concerto is a mix of profundity and flippancy. With its solemn slow movement and the opera buffa finale that suddenly turns darkly introspective. It is particularly notable for its luxuriant interplay between the piano and the woodwind quintet, rising out of the orchestra almost as a separate entity to engage in poignant, private conversations among themselves. Schumann wrote his First Symphony in an astonishing burst of creative energy over four days. Its vivacity is completely characteristic of him at the peak of his happiness. Opening with a dramatic fanfare by the trumpets summoning spring’s awakening, Schumann’s gift for melody and rich romantic harmonies is on full show whilst retaining clarity, balance, and a formal integrity.