Classical Foundations

Beethoven’s Overture to his incidental music The Ruins of Athens opens the evening with a portrait ideal of the old world, sublimely represented in Classical style. 2018 Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition winner, Roman Kosyakov, provides a thrilling interpretation to Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.2, an extraordinary and colossal work blends intense drama with a lightness of feeling in the exchanges between soloist and orchestra.

Written when the composer was barely seventeen years old, Bizet’s Symphony in C major demonstrates the extraordinary prowess of a youth who had yet to make a name for himself. Inspired heavily by his teacher Gounod, both expressiveness and versatility are demonstrated in the lyricism of the Adagio and in the breathless tempo of the final Allegro Vivo.

This concert is kindly supported by the Fairlight Arts Trust.

BEETHOVEN The Ruins of Athens: Overture

BRAHMS Piano Concerto No.2

BIZET Symphony in C major

Jessica Cottis Conductor
Roman Kosyakov (winner of the 2018 Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition) Piano
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra