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Kirill Gerstein, with his heart-stopping virtuosity and rare talent for jazz improvisation, is uniquely placed to take on both Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto, commissioned by the great Gershwin champion Oscar Levant. Gershwin and Schoenberg became neighbours – and tennis partners – in Los Angeles, and what better way to ease us into that post-war Hollywood milieu than Bernard Herrmann’s coruscating Psycho suite, which echoes with Second Viennese School angst? Bartók’s glittering ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin, in which a young girl lures a mysterious mandarin, teems with sonic invention. Young American conductor, James Gaffigan, takes on the work that caused a scandal at its premiere in 1926 but became one of the composer’s best-loved scores.

´óÏó´«Ã½ SO Plus Intro
6.00pm Fountain Room
Professor Peter Franklin (University of Oxford) gives a free introduction to the music in tonight’s concert.