Concert 1 - Brahms, Rachmaninov and Prokoviev

Maidstone Symphony Orchestra

Brahms - Academic Festival Overture Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto no.4 Prokoviev - Symphony no.5

Brahms’s popular Academic Festival Overture gets our season off to a cracking start. The fine Israeli pianist, Ariel Lanyi, returns with Rachmaninov’s 4th Piano Concerto. Originally written in 1926, Rachmaninov continued to work on it until a final version emerged in 1941, with a dazzling finale full of energy and power. Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony, premiered in 1945, is one of his most popular works. Large-scale and brilliant, Prokofiev described it as "a hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit."

Steve Migden will give one of his lively and informative pre-concert talks from 6.40 to 7.10 pm. He has been a professional musician and educator since arriving from the USA in 1965 to study the horn at the Royal Academy of Music.