Takemitsu: How Slow the Wind
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
Beethoven: Symphony No 4

Robin Ticciati, conductor; Jean-Phillipe Collard, piano

Taken together, this and next week’s (Vienna Centuries at the Usher Hall) concerts make an intriguing pair. Mozart was always on Ravel’s mind, to the point of adulation; Beethoven had a more complicated effect on Brahms who was both fired up and inhibited by him when it came to writing symphonies. Beethoven’s Fourth sings with all the ardour and lyricism of the first Romantics (while Brahms’ Fourth is among the mellow fruits of late Romanticism), and Ravel’s brilliance contrasts beautifully with the elegiac simplicity of Takemitsu’s miniature masterpiece – one of the SCO’s most widely performed commissions.

Jean-Phillipe Collard: ‘This was stupendous playing, of a wholly French character’ (The Herald)

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