COMING UP... Part 2

All the composers featured in tonight’s programme left home to find their own voices. Each of the four pieces tell a story of how CPE Bach, JC Bach and Mozart became agents of change in their new havens.

Bach’s two most famous sons were key players in the transition from the baroque style of their father to the new classical style that found its brightest invention in Mozart, Haydn and later Beethoven. JC Bach (‘the London Bach’) ran popular subscription concerts in London from the mid-1760s (and opened the Hanover Square Rooms in 1775) which often featured his numerous, charming sinfonia concertantes. CPE Bach, although he held more conventional court positions in Berlin and Hamburg, was an innovator in the emerging symphony form and solo concertos.

Mozart’s escape to Vienna fits the popular narrative of the young composer as a picaresque hero. It also speaks of a visionary with a serious purpose to shake up the musical establishment. He took his Symphony No 34 with him from Salzburg to Vienna, where it was one of his first big public hits.

7.00pm

Thursday 18 May

Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall