The Philadelphia Orchestra / Grimaud / Nézet-Séguin

It’s always a special event when one of America’s big five orchestras, with nearly 100 players, huge boxes of scores and just short of a dozen double basses, makes the trip across the Atlantic. In the French Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Philadelphia Orchestra has a conductor on the rostrum that is among the most promising of our time. For their guest appearance at the Elbphilharmonie, which features a many-faceted programme ranging from Romantic repertoire to the 21st century, they have been able to win the services of an absolute Brahms specialist as the soloist in the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 1 – Hélène Grimaud. The wealth of timbre that the French pianist displays in her playing is without equal.