Benjamin Grosvenor: Pictures at an Exhibition

Since he began playing at age five, lauded pianist Benjamin Grosvenor has steadily risen to the very highest ranks of international stardom with his outstanding technique and finesse.

Tonight, he delves into the myriad colours of three visionary works which are linked by their vivid, pictorial musical landscapes. Each draws out the piano’s potential to go almost above and beyond an orchestra in expressive range.

Grosvenor opens with Chopin’s ‘Funeral March’ Sonata, a work full of feverish intensity and startling originality. Next comes Ravel’s trilogy Gaspard de la nuit, the French composer’s lavish response to three poems depicting spine-tingling scenes of the supernatural.

The concert concludes with Mussorgsky’s monumental Pictures at an Exhibition.

Here, the Russian composer evokes the life behind a series of paintings: images of ordinary people that become extraordinary through the power of the music. It culminates in a stirring final cityscape, ‘Great Gate of Kyiv’.