Bruce Liu plays Rachmaninov

Bruce Liu joins the Philharmonia and their Principal Conductor Santtu in one of the all-time great piano concertos.

Liu made his UK debut with the Philharmonia in 2022, not long after winning the prestigious Chopin International Piano Competition. He returns in arguably the most popular concerto in history. Composed as Rachmaninov recovered from years of depression and writer’s block, his Second Piano Concerto is a passionate outpouring of creativity: stormy strings, achingly lonely clarinet, and a piano part with more memorable melodies than many composers write in a lifetime.

Santtu follows this with another twentieth-century masterpiece, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. Rumoured to contain a musical depiction of Stalin, this symphony certainly speaks of darkness and fear. But Shostakovich also wove in a motif whose notes represent his own name – the individual standing up against oppression, humanity and creativity defiant and unvanquished.