Maidstone Symphony Orchestra, John Lill CBE

It’s a delight to welcome back their President, the great pianist John Lill, who’s been performing with MSO for well over 40 years.

This time he plays his favourite Beethoven Piano Concerto, No.3. It’s darkly emotional, with a gloriously lyrical slow movement and a rumbustious finale. Weber’s gently romantic Oberon overture is a perfect foil in preparing us for the glories of Brahms’s 4th Symphony.

It’s Brahms’s supreme achievement, fusing the musical architecture of the Baroque and Classical periods, which he loved, with the lyrical sound world of the Romantic era in which he lived.