ConcertPulse
Khatia Buniatishvili & Leopold Hager
At the tender age of five Mikko Franck (b. Helsinki, 1979) knew that he wanted to become a conductor, and by 17 he had already launched his professional career. Like many of his famous colleagues from Finland, he honed his skills with the great conducting teacher Jorma Panula. Currently he heads the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Alongside Franck, the young Franco-Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili – known for her passionate and extroverted readings – will give her BRSO début in a work thoroughly in keeping with her emotional delivery: Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. Composed after a severe crisis, it is perhaps the most personal and rapturous of his four piano concertos. Bruckner’s Seventh is likewise associated with a personal turning point: it was with this symphony that the 60-year-old composer finally gained widespread recognition. The Seventh has retained its popularity to the present day.