Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach succeeded his godfather, Georg Philipp Telemann, in his post in Hamburg in 1768. Owing to the decades he spent in the court of Frederick the Great, he was considered one of the most honourable composers of his era. The work being performed at the concert is the first of the four symphonies he composed in 1775 and 1776: Friedrich Nicolai wrote in the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek that these works “were the kind of gifts that only Bach could give us.”

The “Military” symphony is one of Haydn’s final dozen “London” symphonies. Following the introductory Adagio, which is gloomy in some respects, come the themes of the quick main section. Although these are cheerful in tone, the dark shadows return again and again. The middle section of the Allegretto is typical “Turkish” music. The Menuetto (Moderato) was conceived in the spirit of Austrian folk dance. In the Presto finale, Haydn again turns to “Turkish-style” sounds as a source of influence.

Mozart married Constanze Weber in August 1782. The composer vowed to commemorate the event with a thanksgiving mass. He planned to première the work in Salzburg. The only parts of the composition that were performed in the autumn of 1783 were the Kyrie, Gloria and the Sanctus. Later on, further parts were completed, but not all of the liturgical text would be set to music. Even as a fragment, the amazing work clearly reveals the influence of the style of Bach and Handel as relayed through Baron Gottfried van Swieten. The Qui tollis, the most dramatic movement in this mass conceived in the spirit of the “stile antico”, evokes the chromatically descending ostinato of the Baroque passacaglia, forming a perfect unity with the pained melody, likewise chromatic, of the chorus. The conductor for the evening will be Konrad Junghänel, known as a specialist of – especially German and Italian – Renaissance and Baroque music.