Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite is like that favourite picture book you couldn’t let go of as a child: disarmingly simple, pleasantly familiar, and beautifully illustrated.
The magic deepens with Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel Suite, which vividly depicts the stuff of dreams and nightmares: a house of gingerbread, a flight on a witch’s broomstick, and a night spent all alone in the woods.
But even with your imagination in overdrive, you may have difficulty believing what you see and hear next. Rachmaninov’s devilishly difficult Third Piano Concerto is a relentless torrent of fiery melodies and ever-shifting harmonies. Pulling this out of the magic box (aka the piano) will be Lauren Zhang, 2018 BBC Young Musician of the Year.
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