https://www.colinscolumn.com/bbc-proms-2024-prom-27-bbc-symphony-orchestra-sakari-oramo-conducts-richard-strausss-alpine-symphony-mozarts-e-flat-piano-concerto-k271-seong-jin-cho-and-kaija-saariahos-mirage-silja-aal/

BBC Proms 2024 - Prom 27: BBC Symphony Orchestra. Sakari Oramo conducts Richard Strauss's Alpine Symphony, Mozart's E-flat Piano Concerto K271 (Seong-Jin Cho) and Kaija Saariaho's Mirage (Silja Aalto & Anssi Karttunen). Live on BBC Radio 3. - Colin's Column

Friday, August 9, 2024 Royal Albert Hall, London We were summoned for 18:00, for this early-evening Prom, which culminated in Richard Strauss’s Eine Alpensinfonie, his farewell to the extravagant, large-scale symphonic poem, opening and closing in darkness, daytime activities focussed on climbing a mountain with all the thrills and spills involved, including coming back down. […]

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By contrast. the Mozart Piano Concerto that is Number Nine in Ludwig Köchel’s catalogue (entitled ‘Jeunehomme’ if written for a young lady), his breakthrough work in the genre, the piano entering almost immediately, a very stylish performance, soloist, conductor and orchestra as-one, the first movement elegant, Seong-Jin Cho effortlessly trilling himself back following the orchestra’s exposition into the intimacies of the music-making, articulate, affectionate. The slow movement was heavenly, the Finale, with its interpolated Minuet, here gently danced, enjoyed poised outer sections, with delightful oboe detail shining through. First-movement cadenza by the composer. 11/10 on the pleasure scale. Make that 12 with Cho’s exquisite encore, the ‘Minuet’ middle movement from Ravel’s Sonatine.