Beethoven鈥檚 Third Piano Concerto owed a significant debt to Mozart, particularly his dark and brooding Piano Concerto No. 24, which Beethoven particularly admired. But the Third Concerto also marks a point of departure from Mozart鈥檚 Classical soundworld, made possible by the advances in piano technology. The exciting young Siberian virtuoso Pavel Kolesnikov, recently a 蜜芽传媒 New Generation Artist, offers Nottingham a first glimpse of his brilliance. Tchaikovsky鈥檚 Manfred was his most ambitious orchestral work. At first reluctant to take on Byron鈥檚 epic poem, the outcome was one of Romanticism鈥檚 most impressive statements, the extremity of Byron鈥檚 verse, which the poet himself described as being of 鈥渁 very wild, metaphysical, and inexplicable kind鈥�, expressed in music that鈥檚 both powerfully evocative and thrillingly virtuosic.
Free pre-concert talk, 6.30pm in the auditorium: Tim Jones introduces the programme.