The great escape

There might be grey skies over London, but at Royal Festival Hall, Edward Gardner is serving up pure sunshine. Because after all, the great composers liked to escape too. So here’s Debussy, dreaming of a Spain even more colourful and fragrant than the real thing – and finding a thousand iridescent colours in the waves of the English Channel. Here’s Ravel, opening a storybook and conjuring a whole enchanted world. And here’s pianist extraordinaire Stephen Hough joining Saint-Saëns on a musical cruise to Egypt. This glittering Fifth Piano Concerto features frogs, ocean liners, and piano playing that’ll leave you breathless.