Spirit of romance

‘Rarely, rarely comest thou, Spirit of Delight!’ The orchestra hovers, pulls back, and then surges forward in glowing waves of sound. No British music is more thrilling than the opening of Elgar’s Second Symphony, and nothing quite matches what follows: music torn straight from the heart. If that doesn’t sound like your idea of Elgar, let guest conductor David Parry reveal what you’ve been missing – and discover the darker side of Mendelssohn too, in a gloriously gothic overture. The link is Chopin: and the timeless romance of his First Piano Concerto, played tonight by the charismatic young Italian virtuoso Vanessa Benelli Mosell.