Britten / Bach / Mahler / Mozart

On the first evening of our spring season a spiritual twin production could be heard: Britten was almost obsessed with the music of earlier eras, especially the Baroque, as this great little jewel box, the Prelude and Fugue for Strings, among many other works, proves. And the Flute Concerto that follows is the most famous work by Carl Philipp Emmanuel, who was called the 'great' Bach in his own time, and a real musical magician's trick for all flutists. Mahler and Mozart also imbibed a kind of musical mother's milk: though their styles may seem distant, the music of both is imbued with the certainty of angels and the eternal melancholy of beauty.