FRANCESCO PIEMONTESI (piano) A former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, the acclaimed Swiss pianist’s recordings include Recital, winner of the BBC Music Magazine Newcomer Award in 2012.
JOSEPH SWENSEN (violin/conductor) In demand as a violinist and conductor before retiring from the former in 2020, Swensen is conductor emeritus of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) among other positions.
CHARLES MACKERRAS (conductor) One of the most highly respected conductors of recent times, Mackerras (1925-2010) was principal guest conductor of the SCO from 1992-5, and then its conductor laureate.
ANDREW MANZE (conductor) After enjoying a high-profile career as a violinist, Manze has enjoyed equal renown as a conductor, not least as principal conductor of the NDR Radiophilharmonie from 2014-23.
ROBIN TICCIATI (conductor) Principal conductor of the SCO from 2009-18, Ticciati is today music director of both Glyndebourne Festival Opera and of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
MAXIM EMELYANYCHEV (conductor) Formerly chief conductor of the renowned period instrument ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, Emelyanychev has been principal conductor of the SCO since the 2019-20 season.
SCOTTISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
In 2024, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra celebrates its 50th anniversary. Over its half-century, the Edinburgh-based ensemble has won a reputation for the highest levels of performance, across Scotland and beyond, in recordings and, increasingly, online.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No. 38, ‘Prague’: I. Adagio – Allegro
Mozart’s D major Symphony, completed in December 1786, received its first performance the following month in Prague, a city which had become increasingly enamoured by the composer’s music, in contrast to the more lukewarm reception he encountered in Vienna.
A dramatic and daringly original Adagio opens the work, its full-blooded explosive orchestral chords and unexpected harmonies seeming to point forward to the Overture to Don Giovanni which he composed later in 1787. The operatic provenance of Mozart’s writing is also evident in the bustling Allegro, whose lively figurations presage the Overture to The Magic Flute. Throughout this movement, Mozart expands the range and colour of his orchestral writing beyond anything he had written previously by giving the wind instruments equal prominence to the strings and by continually varying the texture. Equally remarkable in this performance is the impact of observing the repeat of the second half of the Allegro, which expands its overall duration to the epic proportions of the firs
