Basingstoke: Marin Alsop and Alexandre Kantorow

The evening

One incredible pianist, one glass-ceiling-defying conductor, and an orchestra of 100 outstanding musicians take to the Anvil stage for an electrifying evening.

Complex, compelling and brilliantly original, Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto is renowned as one of the most challenging in the repertoire. But if anyone can take it in their stride, it’s Alexandre Kantorow. As well as Olympian technique, he brings thoughtfulness and emotional honesty to everything he plays, and his collection of awards, honours and rave reviews grows as fast as his worldwide fanbase.

“Sometimes it sends shivers down my spine… Damn it all, where do people keep their ears and their hearts if they can’t hear that?” So wrote Gustav Mahler to his wife Alma after conducting a performance of his First Symphony.

His treasure-trove of a score fills our ears and our hearts with a lush evocation of a spring dawn, an eerie minor-key version of Frère Jacques, and music that seems to have escaped from a Jewish wedding, a Viennese café and an Alpine village dance. All this leads to an epic finale, with an ending so life-affirming that the horn section can’t stay sitting down.

Marin Alsop, the Philharmonia’s Principal Guest Conductor and one of the most influential figures in the world of classical music, takes the helm for this thrilling programme.