Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2

The young pianist Alexandre Kantorow is acclaimed for his glowing, intense and poetic depth of performance. In 2019, at the age of 22, he became the first French pianist ever to win the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Since then, Kantorow has toured with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra, and given recitals at Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall and more. He was supposed to have debuted at Konserthuset Stockholm last spring, but was prevented from doing so by the pandemic. Now we will finally get to hear him with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Simone Young, in Franz Liszt’s poetically narrative and vibrantly masterful piano concerto.

Conductor Simone Young grew up and studied in Australia, but has a world-leading German and Austrian repertoire. In 2005 she became the first woman to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic and she spent many years as artistic director of the Hamburg State Opera and chief music director of the Hamburg Philharmonic.

Austrian Anton Bruckner is one of her favourite composers, and here, she and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra take on Symphony No. 6, which Bruckner described as his “most daring”. This music is filled with elevated beauty, rhythmic multitudes and melodic splendour. With a run-time of approximately 55 minutes, it is also his shortest.

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Livestream
This concert can be seen at Konserthuset Play. You can also see the concert afterwards on Play.