Dohnanyi Closes 14/15 Season

The 85-year old German conductor, Christoph von Dohnányi is the Philharmonia's Honorary Conductor for Life, so it’s perhaps fitting that he should perform the final concert of the orchestra's 2014/15 residency at the Royal Festival Hall. The partnership between orchestra and conductor goes back more than twenty years, and it’s clear that they have a lot of understanding and affection for each other.
Their programme brings together the giants of 18th, 19th and 20th century composers - Mozart, Beethoven and Bartók - and highlights the sumptuous sounds of the string sections.
It opens with Bartók’s three-movement Divertimento for String Orchestra. Written in 1939, the hauntingly beautiful Adagio reminds us of the turmoil raging across Europe. Yet for the most part, this is an exuberant and joyous work, in which Bartók has fun with Hungarian dance rhythms and melodies.
Arabella Steinbacher and Lawrence Power are the soloists in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola, a work that finds echoes in the Bartók in its structure and mood - a sparkling, vivacious opening and finale, and in between, a sublime slow movement that oozes beauty and lyricism.
The second half is devoted to Beethoven’s magnificent Symphony No. 7, a work that the composer himself deemed as one of his best. Its energy and grandeur made it an instant hit when it was premiered in 1813, and continues to captivate concert-goers to this day. And it promises to bring this season to a fittingly valedictory climax.