大象传媒

鈥榃hat I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again.鈥� So wrote Camille Saint-Sa毛ns of his last 鈥� and greatest 鈥� symphony, a work full of melody, invention and sonic drama (not to mention a piano duet effect he liked so much he recycled it in The Carnival of the Animals). Just as the mighty 鈥極rgan鈥� Symphony rewrote the 19th-century musical rules, so Beethoven鈥檚 Piano Concerto No. 4 scandalised audiences some 80 years earlier, with its revolutionary opening and tender, slow-movement battle between soloist and orchestra 鈥� famously compared to Orpheus taming the Furies. Beethoven is also the inspiration for Unsuk Chin鈥檚 volatile Subito con forza, given its UK premiere here by Sir Mark Elder and the 贬补濒濒茅.

Image: Sir Mark Elder 漏 Benjamin Ealovega