Mitsuko Uchida and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra

The Guardian said of their last appearance at Royal Festival Hall, ‘this is one of those orchestras in which all are stars.’

Mozart’s sunny Piano Concerto No.19 was one of six piano concertos he wrote in 1784, its groundbreaking sophistication suggesting further creative feats to come.

Moving to another well-known Viennese composer, the orchestra performs pieces from Alban Berg’s moving Lyric Suite, which testifies through a musical cryptogram to the composer’s affection for his mistress Hanna Fuchs-Robettin.

Packed with motifs and musical references, it was called ‘a latent opera’ by Berg’s pupil, who became known as the aesthetic theorist Adorno.

The sinister moods of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.20, written in 1785, foreshadow the dark soundworld of his 1787 opera Don Giovanni and the passionate works of the Romantic era. Breathtaking in its emotional breadth, it reflects a composer scaling the heights of his creativity.