London Philharmonic Orchestra, Behzod Abduraimov

Programme to include:

Richard Wagner: Overture, Tannhäuser
Sergey Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Interval
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.4

The Orchestra continues its Rachmaninoff exploration alongside works by Tchaikovsky and Wagner.

When Serge Rachmaninoff heard the famous Caprice in A minor by the mysterious 'devil's violinist' Paganini, he fell under the spell of its tonal to-and-fro and swaggering rhythmic shape.

In 1934, Rachmaninoff set about examining, twisting, refracting and elaborating the tune into his spectacular Rhapsody that, once finished, proved diabolical in the truest sense of the word.

Some 50 years earlier Tchaikovsky had felt some strange external presence, too - the weighty hand of fate upon his shoulder. Tchaikovsky's response was a symphony completely unlike anything he had created before - the most gripping and fevered symphonic tussle with fate since Beethoven's Fifth.