A perfectionist with an impressive memory, Angela Hewitt boasts a wide-ranging repertoire that includes works from various eras (from the Couperins to contemporary pieces specially composed for her), but her name is mainly associated with the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. That is due to her victory in the Bach Competition in Toronto, a series of highly acclaimed recordings of Bach’s keyboard music and the award, not so long ago, of the Bach Medal in Leipzig (as the first ever female recipient). In Warsaw, she will perform one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most ‘symphonic’ piano concertos – the Concerto in C major, K. 503, completed one December day in 1786.

The evening will begin with a piece by Louise Farrenc, an increasingly appreciated Romantic composer who from childhood received private tuition in playing and composition from the most important musicians in Paris, unable – because of her gender – to pursue regular studies in that field. Paradoxically, years later, she herself took over a piano class at the famous Paris Conservatoire. Her two striking concert overtures from 1834 showcase the dramatic and colouristic flair of a composer who unfortunately was not fated to realise her dream of writing an opera. About a century later, Sergei Rachmaninov composed his third, highly expressive Symphony, in A minor, which will bring our programme to a close. This is one of the composer’s last works and an important monument to Eastern European Romantic symphonism.