Lisitsa/Keller

Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 is one of the technically most demanding pieces in the classical music repertoire. This evening we will hear it interpreted by Valentina Lisitsa. The playing of the Ukrainian-born artist, who lives in America, has been heard by almost 50 million people through the Internet. This puts her without doubt among the world's best-known pianists, but she has also performed in prestigious concert venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. The piano concerto is followed on the programme by a pair of rarely heard Stravinsky works: the one-movement Concertino, which the composer arranged for an ensemble of 12 instruments in 1952, and the short and wittily orchestrated Eight Instrumental Miniatures. It is hard to believe that Shostakovich was only 19 years old when he wrote his Symphony No. 1: the piece reveals exquisite taste and surprisingly mature compositional technique.