We launch into our 2022-23 season with Rachmaninov’s vivaciously virtuosic Third Piano Concert. From its melancholic but dignified opening theme to the rhythmically ferocious and hammering finale, you cannot fail to fall in love with the lush orchestral texture, magnificently singing tunes and variety of emotional intensities. Originally premiered in 1909 with the composer at the piano, tonight we welcome the versatile and thrilling young pianist Yeol Eum Son to perform this audacious Romantic concerto.
Whilst Rachmaninov was in full swing as a much-sought-after concert pianist of the Romantic style, fellow Russian, Igor Stravinsky, had recently emerged as a great avant-guard composer, well on the road to forging a long creative partnership with ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev.
Controversial from the outset, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring still has the power to shock and surprise, as it did at its notorious premiere in Paris. Epic in scale and ferocity, the ballet depicts a pagan ritual in which a chosen sacrificial virgin danced herself to death - the angular contortions and tortured motions are countered by moments of beauty and stillness, reflective of Spring and new life.
