| Philharmonia Orchestra | |
| Santtu-Matias Rouvali | Conductor |
| Alice Sara Ott | Piano |
In 2016, Bachtrack hailed “Alice Sara Ott’s startling performance with the Philharmonia, a barnstorming rendition which gripped from first note until last.” She returns to perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, composed after a concert tour of the USA in 1928 and woven through with the sounds of the jazz he encountered there.
Ravel wrote of the ‘joie de vivre’ he found in the rhythm of the waltz, but in La Valse we survey his ‘immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd’ through the prism of the destruction of the First World War. The work was originally commissioned by Diaghilev for a ballet, but though he declared it a masterpiece he said it was ‘not suitable’ – the two men never spoke again, and had to be dissuaded by friends from fighting a duel over the incident.
Sibelius’ Valse Triste, another darkly beautiful subversion of the dance, paves the way for his First Symphony. Finnish conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia last season, brings his irresistible energy to this work full of sweeping melodies, evocative of vast Nordic landscapes.
Ticket sales open on 6th February 2018
