BBC Proms - 2009 - Prom 19: Berlioz, Mendelssohn - Part 2

From the Royal Albert Hall, London. Presented by Martin Handley. In a performance given as part of the 200th anniverary celebrations of Mendelssohn's birth, Mark Elder conducts the Halle in the rarely-heard Symphony No 2, which was wildly popular with the Victorians. Beethoven may have made the idea of a symphony with a choral finale famous, but Mendelssohn trumped him with his Hymn of Praise in 1840 - its choral finale so overwhelms the three preceding orchestral movements that Mendelssohn called the result a Symphony-Cantata. Sally Matthews (soprano) Susan Graham, Sarah Castle (mezzo-sopranos) Steve Davislim (tenor) Halle Choir Halle Youth Choir Halle Orchestra Mark Elder (conductor) Mendelssohn: Symphony No 2 in B flat (Lobgesang).