Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony

As part of today's Proms Marathon, Ian Skelly presents another chance to hear Kahchun Wong conducting the Hallé in music by Ravel & Rachmaninov. Pianist Alexandra Dariescu joins them for Nadia Boulanger’s poetic Fantasy for piano.

Maurice Ravel orch. Colin Matthews: La vallée des cloches
Nadia Boulanger: Fantasy for piano and orchestra
Sergey Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 in E minor

Alexandra Dariescu, piano
Hallé Orchestra
Kahchun Wong, conductor

Rachmaninov’s hard-won Symphony No. 2 – a profoundly personal triumph forged in the failure of his First Symphony over a decade earlier – is the centrepiece of this concert by Manchester’s Hallé orchestra and its Principal Conductor Kahchun Wong. Its expansive, late-Romantic lyricism meets the glowing, pealing soundscape of Ravel’s ‘The Valley of the Bells’ from his Miroirs, orchestrated by Colin Matthews. Pianist Alexandra Dariescu makes her Proms debut in Nadia Boulanger’s boldly poetic 1912 Fantasy for piano and orchestra, with its eclectic nods to Franck, Fauré and Stravinsky.