Maria João Pires performs Mozart with Philharmonia Orchestra

Yuri Temirkanov (conductor)
Maria João Pires (piano)

ROSSINI Overture, The Barber of Seville
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 20, K466
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2

Temirkanov conducts the Philharmonia's closing season concert, joined by Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires.

Closing the Philharmonia's 2012/13 season in style, tonight's concert opens with Rossini's Barber of Seville Overture and Mozart's D minor Piano Concerto, whose dramatic sense of foreboding made such an indelible impact on Brahms and Beethoven that they both composed solo cadenzas for it. The evening ends with Sibelius' rousing Second Symphony, whose lyrical splendour possesses a choreographic flair and majesty. Little wonder that English musicologist Julius Harrison enthused that, 'of all the great writers since the last of the great classical composers, Sibelius is the one recognised by cultured musicians as the most fitting successor to the immortal Brahms.'