Work: Piano Concerto

James Gaffigan advised the audience about to hear him conduct Witold Lutosławki’s Piano Concerto to back off like you would from an Impressionist painting, in order to get an impression of the whole. When you do so, it’s a very romantic work. Otherwise, the score resembles ‘a science experiment’ because parts of it are notated without bars and cannot be conducted.

Gustav Holst certainly wouldn’t be classed by anyone in the “one-hit wonder” brigade, but it is quite rare to find his name appearing on concert programmes next to anything but those two words: The Planets.

The Southbank Centre’s centenary celebration of Witold Lutosławski, titled Woven Words, can easily be overshadowed by the excitement of this year’s The Rest is Noise festival.