Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Few piano works have an opening as iconic as Grieg’s Piano Concerto. The dramatic flair of the first movement begins the work with a display of incomparable virtuosity, an opportunity taken up by Italian soloist Federico Colli. Moving from lush sensitivity to frantic chromaticism, there is little the pianist is left challenged by in this monumental work.

Brahms’ last symphony is a stalwart of 19th-century symphonic repertoire. Its rich passages and themes are at their most affecting in the finale when the multiplying variations create a certain dark, intellectual impulse that is at its most exposed in the Symphony.