Leipziger Symphonieorchester: Winterträume

Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)
Symphony No. 30 (Alleluia)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Horn Concerto No. 4 in E flat major KV 495
Ernesto Herrera del Rio, Horn

Frederick Delius (1862 - 1934)
Winter Night (Sleigh Ride)

Intermission

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893)
Symphony No. 1 in G minor op. 13 (Winter Dreams)

Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 30, composed in 1765 for Prince Esterházy, was given its nickname Alleluia because the main theme of the first movement is based on the Gregorian Alleluia of the Easter liturgy. It can be assumed that the symphony was also used for church purposes for this reason.

Of the four horn concertos composed by Mozart, Concerto No. 4 in E flat major is probably the best known. The concertos were originally written for the virtuoso 'hunter horn player' Joseph Leutgeb and are now part of the standard repertoire of horn players.

Frederick Delius' Winter Night was written on the occasion of Christmas Eve in 1887 and is considered a youthful work in which the characteristic poetic expression that pervades the British composer's later œuvre can already be recognized.

Tchaikovsky completed his First Symphony, entitled Winter Dreams, in 1866 at the age of 26, shortly after his appointment as a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Although the composition caused him much difficulty and the symphony was criticized as immature at its premiere, Tchaikovsky himself considered it to be successful and more substantial than some of his later works.