RPO Lights in the Dark: Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.4 (25 Jun 25)

For centuries, even the most gifted composers have found themselves persecuted or marginalised simply because of who they were.

As a gay man in Tsarist Russia, Tchaikovsky knew what it was to be an outsider, and he poured all his emotions into his Fourth Symphony: a no-holds-barred emotional autobiography, pulsing with melody and torn by raw and dangerous passions. ‘Petrenko’s Fourth is a white-knuckle ride’ wrote Gramophone magazine, and he certainly won’t hold back tonight. There’s no shortage of great melodies in the first half of the concert, too, as Petrenko champions Dorothy Howell’s Lamia – a wildly romantic tale of forbidden love – and the lovely piano concerto by the African-American composer Florence Price. Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, making her Royal Philharmonic Orchestra debut, is the soloist in music that was side-lined for decades and is only now receiving its due.