Coinage Vol 58 No 5 October November 2022

Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 5 in B♭ major, D. 485, was written mainly in September 1816 and completed on 3 October 1816.

The Orpheum Foundation, which has been supporting young musicians for more than thirty years, has joined forces with Alpha Classics for a complete series of recordings devoted to Mozart's solo concertos. The best soloists of the young generation have been selected under the artistic direction of Howard Griffiths, a renowned Mozart conductor, who considers that playing his music is like "looking in a mirror: you can hear if everything is right, musicality, intonation, rhythm, phrasing"… These albums will immortalize this unforgiving challenge and reveal the great virtuosos of tomorrow. Performing concertos for violin, bassoon and piano, with Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, are Ziyu He, Theo Plath and Mélodie Zhao.

One of the boldest and most radical composers of all time, Alexander Scriabin had a lifelong obsession with occult and mystical ideas. Initially under the influence of Chopin, Wagner and Liszt, his music later became more complex, taking on an expressive power which provoked extreme reactions from audiences – of adulation as well as repulsion. Not shying away from hyperbole, Scriabin once declared: "I am the apotheosis of creation – I am the aim of all aims – I am the end of all ends".