Programme:

Elgar : Introduction & Allegro
Beethoven : Piano Concerto No.3
Elgar : Enigma Variations

Performers:

Conductor : Owain Arwel Hughes
Soloist: Leon McCawley (Piano)

Bristling with energy the Introduction & Allegro is an intricately wrought concerto grosso for strings. Abandoning the expansive lyric nature of the Enigma Variations, the work that first brought him to public attention, or the imperial swagger of his marches, Elgar instead took the opportunity to explore a modern approach in a complex and densely packed masterpiece which still retains moments of nostalgic reminiscence.

With its symphonic proportions, grand orchestration, and stormy, Romantic rhetoric, Beethoven’s C minor concerto was an important precursor of his “heroic” middle-period style. Its solo part still demands immense power and virtuosity requiring an unprecedented range of colour and expression from the pianist.

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