Piano 2006 (21 to 26 March 06) will feature performances all 23 of Mozart's piano concertos by some of the best pianists in the world. Soloists include Michael Roll, Nelson Goerner, Kathy Stott, Noriko Ogawa, Freddy Kempf, Anne Queffelec and Michel Dalberto. All of Manchester's major musical organisations including the BBC Philharmonic, Hallé and Manchester Camerata are taking part in the programme, which every day features lunchtime concerts, talks, masterclasses and evening performances in a dazzling array of events. On show during the Bridgewater's third international piano festival will be nineteen prized Steinway pianos which will be displayed around the concert venue for anyone to have a go! The BBC Philharmonic will perform two concerts during Piano 2006: Thursday 23 March - 7.30pm BBC Philharmonic
Paul Goodwin conductor
Michael Roll piano
Anne Queffélec piano
Martin Roscoe piano
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 18 in B flat, K456 Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 in C, K467 Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K488 Three of today's leading pianists top the bill in three of the greatest Mozart concertos. Michael Roll plays the concerto which Mozart wrote in the richly productive year of 1784 for the blind Viennese pianist Maria-Theresia Paradis. The elegant French pianist Anne Queffélec is the soloist in the C major Concerto of 1785, with its romantically expressive slow movement heard on so many soundtracks, such as the tragic film Elvira Madigan. Her gifted compatriot Jean-Philippe Collard plays the mellow K488 of 1786, one of Mozart's sunniest and most popular creations. ----------------------------- Sunday 26 March - 7.30pm BBC Philharmonic
Paul Goodwin conductor
Michel Dalberto piano
Steven Osborne piano
Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin
Mozart Piano Concerto No.16 in D, K451
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat, K595 The BBC Philharmonic and Paul Goodwin open the final concert of Piano 2006 with Ravel's classical homage to a lost age of charm and refinement. Michel Dalberto returns to play a concerto from the miraculous year of 1784, an extrovert piece which Mozart said was 'bound to make the performer perspire'. Manchester-trained Steven Osborne wraps up the Mozart anniversary celebrations with his last concerto. It seems to concentrate a lifetime's experience in its Larghetto theme, and Mozart used the finale melody a day or two later in a song yearningly called, 'Longing for Spring'. ----------------------------- Pre-concert talks at 6.30pm and post concert music from 10.00pm are free to evening concert ticket holders. | 
