Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest . Philippe Herreweghe

Before he overturned the concert genre from his piano stool, Mozart let his musical talents loose on the violin concerto. With a violin teacher as a father and a career as a violin-playing prodigy behind him, it was only natural that this young fellow would give vent to his composing talent in a few concertos for this string instrument. Between April and December 1775, Mozart dashed off no less than five courtly violin concertos, the fourth of which stands out for its pointed contrasts and a highly individual structure. Schumann's Second Symphony, written in 1845 and '46, is equally unusual. It was written shortly after his recovery from a nervous breakdown. In Dresden, the city where the mentally disturbed Schumann hoped to find peace, he scribbled down the sketches for a new symphony in just a week. It was to take him much longer to work them up, however: it was only a year later and with much assistance from his friend Mendelssohn that he completed the work in Leipzig. Beethoven's rarely performed overture to Carl Meisl's play 'Die Weihe des Hauses' will open the concert with a similar degree of grandeur.