Programme

Maurice Ravel
Le tombeau de Couperin

Joseph Haydn
Concerto for piano and orchestra D major, Hob. XVIII:11

Interval

Igor Stravinsky
Capriccio. For piano and orchestra

Maurice Ravel
Mother Goose (complete ballet)

David Robertson, Conductor

Emanuel Ax, Piano

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

The American pianist Emanuel Ax, soon to turn 70, has won the hearts of music-lovers everywhere with his faultless readings and modest demeanour. Now he is returning to the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with not one but two piano concertos, a sprightly combination that deliberately spans the ages as the Classical period meets neo-classicism. Joseph Haydn’s D major Concerto, with its famous Rondo all’Ungarese, will be followed by Igor Stravinsky’s brilliant Capriccio, whose whimsical moods and jazzy rhythms are sure to keep audiences swaying in time. Framing these two frothy pieces are delicate orchestral sketches by Maurice Ravel. The final work is the magical fairy-tale suite Ma mère l’oye, a sensitive realisation of Ravel’s plan to “rekindle the poetry of childhood”. David Robertson, a conductor by no means unknown to the Bavarian RSO, will open his exquisite programme with Ravel’s pithy suite Le Tombeau de Couperin, a musical “tombstone” that toys with forms and styles of the French baroque, marking the end of the First World War while betraying the composer’s gentle sorrow.