Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No.2 is hugely dramatic, mirroring the intensity of the darkest events of the opera it was intended to precede. Derived from music from Act II of Fidelio, it depicts Florestan’s dungeon, to which we are led via dark, descending octaves and dissonant harmonies. Bartók wrote his Second Piano Concerto as a counterpart to the first. It is thematically more agreeable and with fewer difficulties for the orchestra. This intention explains the more folk-like, lighter character of most of the themes. It is intricately planned and reveals Bartók’s characteristic fascination with symmetrical patterns, using the piano as an inherently percussive instrument. Now a firm favourite, it took listeners a little time to recognise the genius and pioneering expression of the symphonic form in Sibelius’ Second Symphony. He wrote it whilst holidaying in Italy: a Mediterranean warmth penetrates the work, thawing some of the Finnish ice. But there is also tension; a pent-up energy builds throughout until eventually the granite-like finale bursts open in a flood of triumphant brass.
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