Brahms Symphony No 2

Fabio Luisi, the principal conductor of the Metropolitan opera, returns to the LSO for a double-bill of works by Beethoven and Brahms.

Beethoven was renowned for his piano skills and he used that knowledge to write some of the most daring and virtuosic piano concertos in the repertoire, culminating in the Piano Concerto No 5 – his last – the ‘Emperor’. Its subtitle betrays the work's heroic character, that this work would be the ruler of all that came before it, and the majestic interplay between soloist and orchestra is on show throughout.

Brahms' Symphony No 2 sounds like a light and cheery work, but in a revealing letter to his publisher he insisted that the work was one of melancholy and mourning. Clearly there is more than meets the ear; whatever the complexities of the emotional atmosphere, the piece itself demonstrates some of the most impassioned and meticulous orchestral writing of the 19th century.