Romanticism and its focus on the individual artist as a creative hero emerged through the blinding brilliance of the Beethoven Symphonies. During the flowering of the Romantic Period, many creative geniuses stepped into Beethoven’s very large shoes – including Mendelssohn.

His genius is featured in this concert with the darkly beautiful Hebrides overture and the E minor violin concerto, one of the most popular violin concertos of all time, played by Kathryn Taylor. Joseph Joachim, the great violinist and pupil of Mendelssohn, when speaking of the four great German Violin Concertos (Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch and Mendelssohn) said that “… but the dearest of them all, the heart’s jewel, is the Mendelssohn.”

We end the concert with Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 which, according to Beethoven’s letters, he considered one of his greatest works.

Mark Shiell will present a pre-concert talk in the auditorium commencing 7.30pm.