Adam Hickox conducts Mozart and Bartók

As Liadov looked upon the lakes of St. Petersburg, he marvelled “cold, malevolent, but fantastic as a fairy tale.” He wasn’t alone in seeing through the world’s bleakness. Gubaidulina illustrated bittersweet children’s tales with adventurous orchestrations and colour-flecked harmonies, and Bartók found humour and absurdity in a gaggle of beggars in his infamous pantomime ballet, 'The Miraculous Mandarin'.

Mustering a gloomy laugh from time to time was, after all, the least an artist could do to keep themselves going in 20th century Hungary and Russia, but for Mozart at the peak of his career, dabbling in melancholy was a novelty. His stormy Twentieth Piano Concerto – the first in a minor key – delighted audiences all the same. But make no mistake – its intensity is more than capable of rivalling the alluring darkness of the 20th century.