BBC Philharmonic: Lovers and Rogues
Will Fulford-Jones
Shakespeare’s Falstaff describes himself as ‘a goodly, portly man… of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye and a most noble carriage’, and Elgar paints a similarly vivid portrait of the man in his witty, stirring masterpiece. Gramophone wrote that when superb young Spanish pianist Javier Perianes plays Grieg’s ever-fresh Piano Concerto, as he does tonight, ‘you may well find yourself falling in love and in awe all over again’. The concert opens with Wagner’s prelude to Tristan and Isolde – where, essentially, modern music began.
