Proms 2017 Prom 20: Stephen Hough plays Brahms

Though booed at its premiere in 1859, Brahms's First Piano Concerto has gone on to become one of the most-beloved of piano concertos. A giant of a piece with an emotional scope to match, it is at its most tender in the slow movement – a ‘gentle portrait’ of Clara Schumann.

Tempering this intensity is Haydn’s graceful Symphony No. 99 and David Sawer’s The Greatest Happiness Principle, with its dancing, rhythmically charged textures. Inspired by Jeremy Bentham’s Utopian philosophies, it is performed tonight as part of the PRS for Music Foundation’s Resonate scheme, promoting British music of the past 25 years, in partnership with the Association of British Orchestras and BBC Radio 3.

Image: Stephen Hough © Sim Canetty-Clarke