The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra have a new “artist in residence” – the horn player Felix Klieser. Today’s music is a video of him playing the 1st movement of Mozart’s 1st Horn Concerto KV412.  Sometimes it is good to be reminded that whilst we might have to struggle against ‘circumstances’ it is almost always possible to find others who have – in one way or another – had to overcome significant obstacles to achieve their dreams and desires (and perhaps achieve something that most people would think is impossible!).  It helps to put things into perspective.

Mozart Horn Concerto No.1 KV412

I did consider sharing just part of this – but decided to go for “the full work” – then you can sample it if you don’t want to listen to it all.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Requiem

I wouldn’t have expected when this all started almost a year ago that this composer would be the most featured – but there you go.

Johan Sebastian Bach : Passion Chorale

I first visited this when I made the journey to the International Horn Symposium in Vienna in 1983. One of the trips took us to Melk and we had the privilege of listening to some great horn playing in a number of different ‘spaces’ within the Abbey.

One thing that stuck in my mind was that I was told that architecturally all the rooms and corridors are built to be narrower at one end than at the other. If you see pictures of the abbey from above you will immediately notice that the overall shape is almost triangular with the point at the rocky promontory overlooking the river.

Coincidentally the line-up of the Canadian Brass in this video is the same as it was when I heard them live in Vienna in 1986.

Canadian Brass and Diane Bish (organ)

Unlike the Bruch, which was based on Scottish tunes, this is original music aiming to depict the scenes rather than being specifically “Scottish”.

I have chosen this version because, although not all the pictures are of the cave, it is the best selection of views that I could find. There is another version on YouTube which matches the music to a trip on the Staffa ferry if you are interested – that didn’t make my final cut because the sound quality is not as good – but the film is good.

Felix Mendelssohn : The Hebrides Overture – Fingal’s Cave

Gioachino Rossini : Guillaume Tell Ouverture

Comments :

Steve Thomas

thanks George, this time you took me back to a holiday in Antigua, on Shirley Heights at the weekend (Sat or Sun??) to an evening of dance, rum & music, one of the highlights was a steel band playing the William Tell overture… incredible!!

Aram Khachaturian : Adagio from Spartacus

Comments :

Deborah Bexon

Such a beautiful and emotive piece of music

Technically this is not a “full work” – the “entertainment” as it was called consisted of many of Edith Sitwell’s poems and the performances mostly choose just some excerpts of the whole. My choice is a compromise between a single song – which would be very short – and the whole (whatever that actually is). I tend to agree with one of the comments on the video which says how much he likes the piece – but that he can only take so much at any one time

Helpfully, there is a little introduction in this video to explain a bit about the music for those who are unfamiliar with it.

When I posted the Prokofiev last Monday I had several possible “themes” to follow for the subsequent posts – one of which was triggered by the fact that the Prokofiev is famously used as the theme tune for a TV programme – I expect you all (or at least most of you) know which one. Got me thinking that we could have a memory test – some (rather old) TV theme tunes to identify.

Yesterday’s music was in many ways popularised by its use in a number of films and TV programmes and it is often the case that we become familiar with some music without knowing what it actually is.

Today is the first memory test – and the particular part is the “Popular Song” (which begins at around 7:15 in the video). Can you remember which TV show? (I know not everyone views these posts immediately, so I will not comment either way if anyone feels like they want to guess! – wouldn’t want any spoilers )

William Walton : Facade

Johann Sebastian Bach : Magnificat

Comments :

David Phillips

Wonderful. Really inspirational. Thank you George.

Helen Young

Thank you George, loved it.

Helen Young

Some of the instruments are fascinating.

George McConnell

I enjoy listening to performances with the old-style instruments – it is a quite different sound and when done well is often eye (or should that be ear) opening

Ludwig van Beethoven : The Consecration of the House

Comments :

Howard Evans

I don’t know this! Will check it out. I don’t think it’s featured in Radio 3’s Beethoven Unleashed – long running series this year on composer of the week! I’ve had chance to listen to quite a few of the episodes!