Éblouissant

Radiant Circles, from the composer Augusta Read Thomas, starts in a suspended and crystalline atmosphere, the music turning into swirling spirals, to culminate in an energetic brass band. The work of a musician of barely 18, still a student at the Conservatoire, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 – his Opus 1 – remains one of his most endearing scores. It culminates in the monumental cadence of the soloist of his first movement. The creation in 1883 of Symphony No. 3 was the occasion of one of Brahms' greatest triumphs: "the tributes to the composer's address reached a degree of enthusiasm almost never before equaled in Vienna," wrote his biographer Max Kalbeck. Clara Schumann was the fervent admirer: "What a work, what a poetry!"

Programme:

Augusta Read Thomas

Radiant Circles

Sergueï Rachmaninov

Piano Concerto No. 1

Johannes Brahms

Symphony No. 3