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The London Philharmonic and their Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis perform a colourful and exciting programme, recorded at the Royal Festival hall last October.

Two of Richard Strauss's most celebrated symphonic poems bookend the concert. Tod und Verklärung – Death and Transfiguration – begins with the stuttering heartbeat of an old man and, after a lifetime's recollections, ends in a blaze of glory as his soul ascends to the beyond. Don Juan launches with an explosion of huge energy and brazen swagger. But after a series of amorous exploits, famously depicted in a tender oboe solo and thrusting horn fanfares, his soul descends, rather than going in the other direction.

Ravel's D major Piano Concerto was originally written for Paul Wittgenstein who lost his right arm in World War I. It's a virtuosic tour de force for the soloist who must only use their left hand. Even more impressive, perhaps, is Ravel's genius which makes listeners forget completely that only five fingers are at work in this dazzling jazz- and blues-inflected score.

Pulitzer prize-winning Cuban-American Tania León is the LPO's new Composer-in-Residence and here her 1999 'Horizons' receives its UK premiere.

Richard Strauss: Don Juan
Ravel: Piano Concerto in D major (for the left hand)
Tania León: Horizons
Richard Strauss: Tod und Verklärung

London Philharmonic Orchestra
Cédric Tiberghien (piano)
Karina Canellakis (conductor)