This week Stephen Johnson concludes the first part of our Beethoven Symphony cycle with the Symphony No.4 in B flat, written in 1806. This concise, lively work pays homage to Beethoven’s teacher, Joseph Haydn. Thomas Beecham conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in this 1945 recording.

Only a short excerpt is available on the free podcast: subscribers can access the complete work.

Two short Italian pieces from the 18th century open this week’s podcast – first a Sonata for harpsichord by Domenico Scarlatti, an exact contemporary of Bach and Handel who was born in Naples but spent much of his later career in Portugal and Spain, as keyboard teacher and composer to Queen Maria Barbara. He became famous for the many harpsichord sonatas he wrote for his royal pupil. This one, in G major, was recorded in 1951 by the Scarlatti expert Fernando Valenti.

Scarlatti’s father Alessandro, also a distinguished composer, taught the Luccese composer Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762), who became on of the most famous Italian composers of violin music of his era. Geminiani wrote over 40 violin sonatas, and this one, in C minor, is played in this 1931 recording by violinist Adolf Busch and pianist Rudolf Serkin.

Serkin and Busch crop up again this week as the pianist and first violin respectively in a 1942 recording of Schumann’s magnificent Piano Quintet in E flat Op.44, one of the pillars of the 19th-century chamber music repertoire. The other players are the remaining members of the Busch Quartet.

Bonus track for subscribers only:

• The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under its then principal conductor, the great Fritz Reiner, in a 1941 recording of Strauss’s youthfully exuberant tone-poem `Don Juan’.

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D. SCARLATTI Sonata in G Kk105 [4:45] Fernando Valenti (harpsichord) Recorded 1951 PRISTINE AUDIO PAKM010 GEMINIANI Sonata for Violin and Piano in C minor (Siciliano) [4:00] Adolf Busch (violin) Rudolf Serkin (piano) Recorded 1931 APR 5543 BEETHOVEN Symphony No.4 in B flat Op.60 [31:30] (Free podcast excerpt only) London Philharmonic Orchestra Thomas Beecham (conductor) Recorded 15th and 17th August and 23rd October 1945 BIDDULPH WHL042 SCHUMANN Piano Quintet in E flat Op.44 [26:51] Rudolf Serkin (piano) Busch String Quartet Recorded 22nd May 1942 BIDDULPH LAB103 Full podcast only STRAUSS Don Juan Op.20 [15:43] Henri Temianka (violin) Vladimir Bakaleinikoff (viola) Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Fritz Reiner (conductor) Recorded 9th January 1941 BIDDULPH 83068 [top]

BEETHOVEN Symphony No.4 in B flat Op.60 [31:30] London Philharmonic Orchestra Thomas Beecham (conductor) Recorded 15th and 17th August and 23rd October 1945 BIDDULPH WHL042 [top]