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Rachmaninoff's Symphony No.1

This event has already happened

This event took place on Friday 27 March 2026.

  • Friday 27 March 2026
  • Reading The Hexagon

Need to know

Repertoire

  • Rossini Barber of Seville: Overture
  • Dvořák Cello Concerto
  • Rachmaninoff Symphony No.1

Features

  • Nil Venditti Conductor
  • Andrew Byun Cello
  • Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Location

Reading The Hexagon
Queens Walk, Berkshire RG1 7QF

Join the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for a dramatic programme of musical delights. Opening with a young, heartbroken Rachmaninoff as he pours all of his ambition and emotion into the epic score of his First Symphony, which goes off like a volcano – wild, passionate and positively brimming with inspiration. For many years, it was lost, but today conductor Nil Venditti gives this youthful tour-de-force its due. In contrast, Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor was the last solo concerto written before his death. A cornerstone of the cello repertoire, its rich textures and lyrical melodies demand a level of virtuosity that ismore than met by award-winning soloist Andrew Byun. Praised for his ‘electrifyingly energetic, room-commanding combination of musicality, theatre, technique and tone’, Buyn brings ‘a world of thought and sound’ to its lush harmonies. The famous ‘Rossini crescendo’ sets the tone for the evening with the Overture to his highly popular comic opera The Barber of Seville, what more could you want?