He jokingly says that he loves the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall as much as he hates it. He knew it much better than many Polish artists long before he first came to Warsaw. In order to follow the live broadcasts of the Chopin Competition in his country, he had to get up at 3.00 a.m. He longed to one day stand on the stage where Martha Argerich and Kristian Zimmerman won the competition. That dream of performing in Warsaw came true in 2015, when Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho triumphed in the Chopin Competition. He now returns to the capital’s stage as the soloist in Johannes Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major.

Brahms used to refer to his powerful work, which posed a considerable challenge for both pianist and orchestra, as a ‘little concerto’. Shortly after the premiere, however, it was more appropriately labelled a ‘symphony with obbligato piano part’. This grand Romantic concerto will be followed by a true Romantic symphony. One of Anton Bruckner’s more popular works, his Fourth Symphony is regarded as one of the finest musical contemplations of nature. Although it does not have a clearly defined literary programme, the composer wove into it the sounds of the morning, the sounds of nature – including the singing of a tit or a mountain echo – and of hunting.