View the Program Notes for this series. Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena, chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, is joined by the fine German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann for Sibelius's great Violin Concerto. The Finnish composer wrote this work between 1902 and 1905, and Richard Strauss led the premiere of the definitive version. A violinist himself, Sibelius is said to have worked out his one-time ambition to become a concert virtuoso with this three-movement concerto, which features the composer's distinctive, Finnish folk music-influenced flavors in a work by turns fiery and lyrical. Franz Schubert wrote his towering orchestral masterpiece, the so-called Great C major symphony, toward the end of his short life. Its exact dates have never been established, but he wrote this formally and harmonically innovative piece at around the same time Beethoven wrote his Ninth Symphony.