Discover Monthly

The winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition 2021 conjures up contrasting virtuoso marvels, including Chopin’s poetic and powerful 24 Preludes.

One of early music’s true visionaries steers this journey through a century of European music, exploring the trailblazing sounds of the Baroque era.

The wind rises, and waves smash against the North Sea coast of England. The earth shakes, as the very ground beneath our feet threatens to give way. And, in 19th-century Russia, a chemist with a gift for music, dreams of ancient times and exotic tribes, and creates sheer sonic alchemy. Music can show us the world in magical new ways, and as conductor Gemma New brings the RPO’s season to a close, she’s chosen four pieces that stir the imagination even while they thrill the senses. Britten’s seascapes, Borodin’s oriental fantasies and Victoria Borisova-Ollas’ tribute to the imagination of Salman Rushdie will make a vivid setting for the playfulness and wit of Prokofiev’s brilliant Third Piano Concerto – played by young pianist Daniel Ciobanu for whom every performance is a new adventure.

For centuries, even the most gifted composers have found themselves persecuted or marginalised simply because of who they were. As a gay man in Tsarist Russia, Tchaikovsky knew what it was to be an outsider, and he poured all his emotions into his Fourth Symphony: a no-holds-barred emotional autobiography, pulsing with melody and torn by raw and dangerous passions. ‘Petrenko’s Fourth is a white-knuckle ride’ wrote Gramophone magazine, and he certainly won’t hold back tonight. There’s no shortage of great tunes in the first half of the concert, too, as Petrenko champions Dorothy Howell’s Lamia – a wildly romantic tale of forbidden love – and the lovely piano concerto by the African-American composer Florence Price. Jeneba Kanneh-Mason is the soloist in music that was side-lined for decades and is only now receiving its due.

Soprano Ruby Hughes joins forces with cellist Natalie Clein and pianist Julius Drake for an intimate concert of lyrical, lively and folk-influenced works.

Aurora Orchestra joins celebrated violist Lawrence Power for a magnificent Italian-themed finale to his year-long Southbank Centre residency.