Performance on 3 - Ulster Orchestra/Tuomas Ollila-Hannikainen

Presented by Petroc Trelawny. In a concert entitled Mirth and Melancholy, the Ulster Orchestra under Finnish conductor Tuomas Ollila-Hannikainen perform music by Weber, Beethoven and Stanford at the Ulster Hall, Belfast. The programme begins with the overture to Weber's last opera, Oberon - a concert piece that has become much more popular than the opera itself, picturing a land of fairies and the spirits of air, earth and water - which is followed by Dutch pianist Ronald Brautigam in Beethoven's last Piano Concerto. A performance of Stanford's Fifth Symphony concludes the concert. Inspired by Milton's L'Allegro ed il penseroso, it contrasts mirth and melancholy. Ronald Brautigam (piano) Ulster Orchestra Tuomas Ollila-Hannikainen (conductor) Weber: Overture (Oberon) Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 5 (Emperor) Stanford: Symphony No 5 in D (L'Allegro ed il penseroso) Followed by a focus on Beethoven's violin sonatas, featured in recordings from the BBC archives. Beethoven: Sonata in F major, Op 24 ("Spring") Alina Ibragimova (violin) Cedric Tiberghien (piano)