London Symphony Orchestra / Barbara Hannigan

Bach’s »The Art of Fugue« could be described as a farewell work: the cycle of 14 fugues and canons is Bach’s last composition, and he left it unfinished at his death. Similar circumstances apply to the Violin Concerto that Alban Berg dedicated to the memory of his friend Manon Gropius, »an angel«, who died aged only 18 in the year of its composition, 1935. As Berg followed her to the grave shortly after, posterity mystified the concerto as the composer’s own requiem – not unlike the second movement of Haydn’s symphony No. 44, which the composer is alleged to have wanted played at his own funeral. In his »Lonely Child«, the last piece on the programme, the Canadian composer Claude Vivier  explores his difficult childhood – he never knew his real parents.