Energy Unleashed Mendelssohn, Mozart, Beethoven

Portsmouth Guildhall, Portsmouth

Mendelssohn’s musical postcard of a trip to the remote island of Staffa is more of a tone poem than an overture in the traditional sense. It conjures up a whole seascape including the grandeur of Fingal’s Cave, the swelling of the sea, the light on the water and the fury of the waves breaking on the monumental cliffs.

Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony’s appeal is not hard to understand. Described by Wagner as “the apotheosis of the dance”, with boundless energy and rhythmic impetus the music rages forward, almost demonically, with climax after climax, right to the brilliant final notes and one of the most thrilling endings in all music.