NSO: Stanislav Kochanovsky conducts Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Sir Stephen Hough plays Rachmaninoff

Stanislav Kochanovsky, conductor*
Sir Stephen Hough, piano
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 “Pathétique”
Named by The Economist as one of Twenty Living Polymaths, Sir Stephen Hough combines a distinguished career as a pianist with his remarkable achievements as a composer and writer. His return to the Concert Hall is always highly anticipated, but never more so than when performing Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, one of the most fiendishly difficult pieces ever composed for the instrument.

Then, the “Pathétique” shows us a man on the edge as tensions erupt in Tchaikovsky’s glorious, heartbreaking final symphony. The composer himself described the work as “the best thing I ever composed or shall compose.”