Gustavo Gimeno & Yuja Wang

Experience Russian Romanticism’s wildest, stormiest night, Bartók’s exhilarating modernism, and the irresistible magic of Tchaikovsky’s ballet music.

Here’s a chance to hear the original untamed version of Mussorgsky’s Night on the Bare Mountain (the version most often performed today was heavily edited and lushly orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov). Mussorgsky’s own vision, on the other hand, is rawer, its harmonies stranger, its textures more eerie, conjuring a frenzied witches’ sabbath in gripping style.

Bartók’s pulsating Piano Concerto No 1 – played by star soloist Yuja Wang – drives forward from the off, with the percussive power of the instrument taking centre stage. The concert ends with a suite of movements from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, compiled by conductor Gustavo Gimeno, featuring some of the composer’s most memorable tunes.

We welcome the acclaimed Spanish conductor Gustavo Gimeno to the LSO, alongside pianist Yuja Wang, whose blistering artistry will breathe vivid life into Bartók’s dynamic concerto.

For artistic reasons, the concerto being performed at the LSO concerts on 17 and 20 December will now be Bartók’s Piano Concerto No 1, replacing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3.