Symphonic Piano: The Rite of Spring

Hear Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in the composer’s original four-hand version as Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva launch a new series transforming orchestral masterpieces at the piano.

Symphonic Piano is a new three-part series in which two pianists recreate the scale, colour and drama of the orchestra on two pianos or four hands at a single keyboard.

Across the season, internationally acclaimed artists bring symphonic masterpieces to life through original piano-duo versions, four-hand arrangements and virtuosic transcriptions, revealing new details within some of the orchestral repertoire’s most iconic scores.

The series opens with London Piano Festival Artistic Directors Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva in a programme tracing the evolution of French and Russian musical modernism. Debussy’s evocative Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Ravel’s radiant Daphnis et Chloé are reimagined for two pianos, before the duo culminate with Stravinsky’s revolutionary The Rite of Spring in the composer’s original four-hand version.

Celebrated for their longstanding partnership and acclaimed recordings of both two-piano and four-hand repertoire, Owen and Apekisheva bring these orchestral masterpieces into sharp focus. Experienced through the clarity, intimacy and intensity of the piano, these landmark scores invite listeners to hear familiar music afresh.

Price: £20-£30