A title like “La Gazza Ladra” probably makes the die-hard opera lover a little uneasy. However, the music of this Rossini masterpiece is so charming, opulent, and aristocratically ebullient, that the opera lover readily forgives. Moreover, it is about a lovely lady - the heroine of a melodramatic story, with some anti-social manifestations. A story of love, honour, fidelity, menace, and redemption.

And the magpie, you may ask? The magpie will be heard at the very beginning of the overture; the virtuoso and daring rattling of the wronged heroine amid the alarm of what is happening: and we also hear the proud march of, as it were, deliverance from misunderstandings and troubles.

Alexander Glazunov, the miracle heir of the Mighty Five and the spoiled child of the Belyayev circle, is the author of only one violin concerto, a work loved by soloists. The one-movement work has everything a virtuoso performer needs - density, impetuous flow, passion, great panache, variety, and logical formal development. (The concerto is in one movement, beginning as an outpouring, ending like a carnival). That is why it is also beloved by the audience, and held in even higher esteem by musical conoisseurs. And we expect a fine violinist of the stature of the Vienna Philharmonic’s concertmaster Albena Danailova to bring out what is intimately hidden by habit in the famous piece.

Glazunov’s first instrumental concerto is contemporary with his final symphony. From here on, perplexed by the new paths taken by the musical art, tired of its somewhat reckless progress, Glazunov gradually withdrew from composing. However, his work, among the greatest of  which is the exquisite violin concerto, lives on.

Perhaps, too, by the time Mendelssohn composed his Third, “Scottish”, Symphony, the land that had given it its name was dreaming of its independence. Thus the symphony, besides being a monument to Mendelssohn’s significant symphonic mind, is a tribute to Scotland’s beauty and traditions; here the landscape becomes history, the description a majestic memory, and the memory a harsh vision. And all this is within the outline of an elegant - as always with the composer - symphonic relief.