Beethoven.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Symphony No.1

Ravel.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Piano Concerto in G

Shostakovich.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Symphony No.10

Kirill Karabits.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Conductor

Frank Braley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Piano

It seems fitting that Beethoven composed his First homages to the older generation, it is very much a forward looking Symphony at the dawn of a new century. Despite its work with glimmers of the innovations to come from the great composer. Even his contemporaries realised that his symphonies would change the genre forever.

Despite writing a great deal of music for solo piano, Ravel wrote only two piano concertos. They were his last major compositions before the onset of his tragic brain illness. The Concerto in G was a showcase for both his remarkable virtuosity and his compositional talents and is strongly influenced by the jazz craze that was then sweeping the world.

The Tenth Symphony is now widely regarded as Shostakovich’s finest work in the genre - a successful union of expressive qualities and technical means, conceived on a grand scale. This is music of a new beginning, at once summing up all that Shostakovich had to say, releasing everything that the years of Stalin’s oppression had buried and anticipating a fresh and enlightened era ahead.

Tickets: £29, £26, £21.50, £17.50, £14, £9, discounts available.