An Alpine Symphony by Mozart, Strauss, Haas, Ó (2018/2018), Seoltóir Ilan Volkov, Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

A concert of sonic scope and spectacle from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and its Principal Guest Conductor Ilan Volkov climaxes in Strauss’s dramatic An Alpine Symphony, which paints a vivid picture of a day’s hiking in the Bavarian mountains. The Alps also make their way into Georg Friedrich Haas’s Concerto grosso in the form of four alphorns – enormous wooden horns, whose other-worldly overtones also inspired Rossini and Berlioz. The concert opens with Mozart’s Notturno, an unfinished Salzburg carnival serenade, whose four separate instrumental groups will be dispersed around the Royal Albert Hall for maximum acoustic drama.