Radio 3 in Concert: Royal Northern Sinfonia: Mendelssohn and Schumann

Adam Tomlinson introduces a concert of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Pärt given by Royal Northern Sinfonia, violinist Alina Ibragimova and conductor Clemens Schuldt live at Sage Gateshead. The programme opens with JS Bach's youngest son - and `London's Bach" - Johann Christian, whose symphonies are signature works of the 18th century, with No 6 arguably his most unsettlingly dramatic. The beloved Lutheran hymn Ein' feste Burg is unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God) informs the finale of Mendelssohn's `Reformation" Symphony, a piece that JS Bach had worked into a cantata for the Augsburg bicentennial a century earlier. In between, Arvo Pärt's buzzing If Bach Had Been a Beekeeper uses the musical notation of the letters BACH. Plus, Alina Ibragimova performs Schumann's Violin Concerto in A minor, a work Schumann seemed to conceive on symphonic terms. Alina Ibragimova (violin), Royal Northern Sinfonia, conductor Clemens Schuldt. JC Bach: Symphony in G minor, Op 6 No 6. Schumann: Violin Concerto in A minor. Interval. Arvo Pärt: Wenn Bach Bienen gezüchtet hätte. Mendelssohn: Symphony No 5 `Reformation"