The Hallé – Prokofiev And Debussy

Roderick Cox conductor
Benjamin Grosvenor piano

Copland Fanfare for the Common Man
Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.3
Debussy La Mer

Appearing for the first time with the Hallé, American conductor Roderick Cox won the 2018 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award, and has been hailed by the Minnesota Star Tribune as ‘a trailblazer … a conductor who will be amongst the vanguard.’ Making a rousing upbeat to the concert, Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man was composed to mark the USA entering World War Two. Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, performed by a favourite Hallé visitor, Benjamin Grosvenor, written when the composer was in his late twenties. Full of youthful zest and playfulness, it ends jubilantly with sweeping glissandos across the keyboard. ‘Music’, said Debussy, ‘can bring together all manner of variations of colour and light’, as he proved in his evocative seascapes La Mer, inspired by his childhood memories of the sea, and paintings of J.M.W. Turner.

After the concert, in the foyer

Join us for more music, from members of the Hallé Youth Ensembles.