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International Chopin Piano Competition-winner Seong-Jin Cho is one of the world’s most exciting young pianists, praised for his ‘remarkable technique’ and the elegance of his interpretations. Who better to perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 – a heady combination of brilliance and poetry, its slow movement a vision of ‘a beloved landscape on a moonlit spring night’. Could that landscape perhaps be Italian? Italy’s warmth and summer sunshine suffuse both Elgar’s bucolic In the South overture and Strauss’s tone-poem Aus Italien, each inspired by a visit to the country. The Philharmonia Orchestra is led by its Finnish-born Principal Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali.

Image: Santtu-Matias Rouvali © Camilla Greenwell