Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto

A quiet pulse, and a long, chant-like melody that seems to breathe the air of old Russia – it’s an unlikely way to begin one of the most difficult and brilliant piano concertos ever created. Rachmaninov’s Third has been called the “Everest of piano concertos” but if anyone’s equipped to scale it, it’s the superb young British virtuoso Isata Kanneh-Mason and the BBC SSO’s newly-appointed Principal Guest Conductor Delyana Lazarova.

She’s placed it at the centre of a concert designed to showcase her own musical passions, whether Jessie Montgomery’s playful letter from America, Samuel Barber at his most explosive, or Claude Debussy’s impressionist seascape – music driven by the swell of waves and the sparkle of sunlight.