The Hallé – Saint-Saëns’ Second Piano Concerto

Olari Elts Conductor
Pavel Kolesnikov Piano

Ravel Le Tombeau De Couperin
Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No.2
Takemitsu Three Film Scores For String Orchestra
Poulenc Sinfonietta

Pavel Kolesnikov, ‘a poet of the piano’ (Bachtrack), joins Olari Elts to perform Saint-Saëns’ celebrated Second Piano Concerto.

Saint-Saëns wrote his Second Piano Concerto in three weeks, leaving very little time to prepare for its premiere. With its dazzling stylistic changes, it has grown to become the most popular of the composer’s piano concertos.

Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin started life as a suite for solo piano but was later orchestrated by the composer and it is this arrangement that the Hallé will present. It is a delicately intimate work with each of its six movements dedicated to friends of the composer who had died in the First World War.

Following the Ravel we hear Takemitsu’s Three Film Scores for String Orchestra which features his music from Jose Torres (1959), Black Rain (1989) and Face of Another (1966). The programme concludes with Poulenc’s rhythmic and satirical Sinfonietta.