Tchaikovsky - Composer

PROGRAMME: Mozart The Magic Flute Overture Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 PERFORMERS: Sergey Smbatyan conductor Freddy Kempf piano Malta Philharmonic Orchestra Some pianists just have something special, and Freddy Kempf is one of them. He’s a keyboard wizard – “virtuosity with a vengeance, with no hint of a safety net” was how Gramophone described his playing. But he’s also one of those performers who reaches out and connects with his listeners, and in the decades since his youthful triumph in BBC Young Musician, British audiences have taken him to their hearts. So expect far more than just a brief encounter when he joins the Malta Philharmonic and its principal conductor Sergey Smbatyan in Rachmaninov’s hugely popular Second Piano Concerto. And then hold tight for the unchained melodies and soaring emotions of Tchaikovsky’s epic Fifth Symphony, conducted by a maestro who has this music in his blood. “The finger work is as clean as a whistle – every note in place, every bar crystalline.” Musicweb-international.com on Freddy Kempf