London Philharmonic Orchestra, Rustem Hayroudinoff (piano), Giancarlo Guerrero (conductor)

It was just what we needed on a damp afternoon, the spicy heat of Seville in Bizet’s ‘Excerpts from Carmen’, rather polite but evoking summer and sun. Chopin’s romantic 2nd Piano Concerto was more passionate, ablaze with Hayroudinoff’s virtuosity. The capacity audience thundered applause and won an encore, a dazzling 4 minute study for the left hand. It brought the house down.

Follow that? Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony. Guerrero vigorously prised a fine interpretation from the LPO, but he also stood stock still during solo passages, his baton barely twitching, and he pouted in the Scherzo to make them laugh, brilliant!

Congress Theatre, Eastbourne, 13 October 2013

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