Shelley, Grimaud & Gershwin

Composed two years before Igor Stravinsky caused riots in Paris with The Rite of Spring, his ballet The Firebird hypnotized the city’s music lovers with a tale of spine-tingling suspense and supernatural wonder. Experience a musical journey of the imagination with Stravinsky’s magical score, which offers all the elements of your favourite fairy tales: enchanted gardens, brave heroes, ghoulish goblins, and good triumphing over evil.

“Many persons thought the Rhapsody in Blue was only a happy accident,” George Gershwin once wrote. “I went out to show them that there was plenty more where that came from.” Hear the work that solidified Gershwin’s status as one of the greatest composers of his time when pianist Hélène Grimaud—whose performances are “truly balm for the ears” (Bachtrack)—performs the Concerto in F, a jazz-infused American take on the classical concerto.

Opening the program is the concert suite from Kevin Lau’s ballet score Dark Angels—a work of powerful lyricism and savage rhythm that explores humankind’s capacity for both love and violence, as well as our primal need for acceptance.