Open Rehearsal: Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2 with Nobu

The evening

Extraordinary pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii, an audience favourite known to his many fans as Nobu, makes an eagerly-anticipated return to the Philharmonia.

Nobu, who has been blind from birth and relies on intense, incredibly detailed listening to work with an orchestra, performs Shostakovich’s upbeat Piano Concerto No. 2. Written as a graduation piece for the composer’s son Maxim, its outer movements show off the soloist’s playful energy and precision, while the central slow movement is a lyrical outpouring of love.

Tonight’s programme opens with American composer Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s tuneful, shimmering Primal Message, for strings, harp, celesta and percussion. The piece is her homage to the ‘Arecibo message’, binary code broadcast into interstellar space in 1974. Could music be the way to tell extraterrestrial life what it is to be human?

And to complete this hugely enjoyable evening, Xian Zhang has put together her own selection from Prokofiev’s ballet score Romeo and Juliet – listen out for the imposing tread of the ‘Dance of the Knights’.