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Live at the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Proms: The Vienna Philharmonic perform Tchaikovsky's ‘Pathétique’ Symphony and Mozart's 'Prague' Symphony with conductor Franz Welser-Möst

Presented by Martin Handley, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 38 in D major, ‘Prague’

c. 7.05pm
Interval: The cultural historian Rosamund Bartlett joins Martin Handley to talk about Tchaikovsky and his great love of tonight's other Proms composer, Mozart.

c. 7:30pm
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, ‘Pathétique’

Vienna Philharmonic
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

Franz Welser-Möst and the Vienna Philharmonic round off their Proms visits with two late, great symphonies, each breaking the musical mould. Hot on the heels of The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart’s ‘Prague’ Symphony is animated by the same iconoclastic brilliance, bewitching audiences with a work whose thematic richness, breadth and ambition outpaced any previous symphony. A century later it was Tchaikovsky’s turn to defy convention with his final, ‘Pathétique’ Symphony – whose confessional intensity and turbulent passions conceal a secret narrative known only to the composer. Huge melodies soar and surge, but there’s no happy ending; the symphony closes not with a shout of triumph but a heart-breaking lament.