Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra

Kensington Symphony Orchestra, under music director Russell Keable, performs Bartók’s spectacular orchestral showpiece. After fleeing Hungary for the US during the Second World War, Bartók was in hospital – suffering from what would later be diagnosed as leukaemia – when Serge Koussevitzky visited him to offer a new commission. The resulting orchestral showpiece, his Concerto for orchestra (1943), was premièred by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1944. It soon became his most popular work. Kensington Symphony Orchestra (KSO) is joined by soloist Samson Tsoy to perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the left hand in D major (1929 – 30). Written for the pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm in the First World War, this darkly atmospheric, jazz-infused work features demanding cadenzas that give every impression of a piece played with two hands. The concert opens with ‘Trace’ (2013) by the Grammy Award-nominated Chinese-American composer Zhou Tian, who uses a lush, neo-impressionistic palette to recall pre-industrial China in a ‘kaleidoscopic series of carnival outbursts and dance patterns’ (City Pulse). Described as ‘one of the very best amateur groups in the country’ by Classical Music magazine, KSO has been praised by Classical Source for its ‘bold, adventurous programmes’.