Just announced
Henley Symphony Orchestra
Folklore and Fantasy
On Sale Weds 15 January 2025, 10am
Alexander Walker: Conductor
Leon McCawley: Piano
Tchaikovsky - Fantasy Overture ‘Romeo and Juliet’
Grieg - Piano Concerto in A minor
Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade
Praised for his unfailingly communicative playing, British pianist Leon McCawley has been delighting audiences worldwide since winning, in 1993, First Prize in the International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna and Second Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition.
Leon will be soloist in Grieg’s ravishing Piano Concerto. Rich with Norwegian melodies and rhythms, the concerto is the perfect balance of drama and lyricism, from its famous opening flourish to the vigorous ‘peasant dance’ finale.
Stories of doomed love resonated with Tchaikovsky, and his Fantasy Overture is a tautly constructed masterpiece that reduces Shakespeare’s narrative to its essentials in music that is, by turns, thunderingly dramatic and achingly beautiful.
Rimsky-Korsakov’s skill in orchestration is shown off to the full in his sensuous oriental-themed symphonic music, Scheherazade, inspired by the story of The Arabian Nights. In this fairy-tale adventure, the Sultana Scheherazade saves her own life by entertaining the grim Sultan with fascinating tales for a thousand and one nights.
