Radio 3 in Concert: Mendelssohn and Wagner from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Mark Forrest presents a concert recorded at Symphony Hall in Birmingham on May 28. American mezzo Jamie Barton makes her debut with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Wagner's sumptuous Wesendonck Lieder, settings of five poems by Mathilde Wesendonck, one of the several women with whom the composer fell deeply in love. Written as Wagner began working on his opera Tristan and Isolde, the songs share the opera's philosophical grounding and its intensity of passion. Felix Mendelssohn's music provides the perfect counterbalance, and the concert begins and ends with two of his most beloved works - the overture to his incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream and his Symphony No 4, inspired by his travels in Italy. Also on the programme is Roxanna Panufnik's Alma's Songs without Words, imaginative orchestral versions of three songs by Alma Mahler. Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Overture). Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder. Interval music - Fanny Mendelssohn: Songs without Words (selection). Olga Pashcenko (pianoforte). Roxanna Panufnik: Alma's Songs without Words. Mendelssohn: Symphony No 4, Italian. Jamie Barton (mezzo), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Bleuse (conductor)