Gil Shaham & Saint-Saëns 3/ Mozart 41

The French Baroque composer François Couperin left behind four evocative volumes of harpsichord music. Inspired by this music Thomas Adès selected in 2006 a number of short pieces and used them as basis for a new three-part orchestral
composition. Couperin’s music is characterised by its many repetitions that harpsichordists vary using a range of touches and registers. Thomas Adès translates these subtle nuances into a sumptuous orchestration. “Like pieces of coloured glass in a kaleidoscope, pieces of Baroque music tumble over each other,” was how a reviewer in the Financial Times once described Thomas Adès’ Three Studies from Couperin.

Following the Franco-Prussian war in 1871, Camille Saint-Saëns was more motivated than ever for French symphonic music, which had barely existed since Berlioz, to rival what was being composed in Germany. The French had focused for too long on opera and ballet. Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3, now one of his best-loved works, fulfils this aim ‘con brio’. Beautiful melodies and exquisite orchestration show why later composers such as Fauré and Ravel admired Saint-Saëns so much. As a tribute to the violinist who played the premiere, Pablo de Sarasate, the final movement includes a lot of Spanish colour in addition to French brilliance.

Haydn’s First Symphony lasts 12 minutes, has three movements and was written for strings, two oboes and two horns. He composed it at the age of 27 in 1759 as the Kapellmeister in a Czech village. The difference between this piece and Mozart’s final symphony, No. 41, composed in 1788, is immense and spans the musical developments that unfolded during the Classical period. However, Mozart also looks back in his Jupiter Symphony: the fourth and final movement is a majestic marriage of a Baroque five-voiced fugue and the gallant Classical style. One of the most successful pages in orchestral literature!

Jonathan Bloxham, conductor
Gil Shaham, violin