Launching Suffolk Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2024-5 Season, Leslie Olive conducts Brahms’ glorious First Symphony rich with the heritage of Beethoven, Sibelius's ever-popular Karelia Suite (older music lovers will remember the Intermezzo as the theme tune to the TV programme 'This Week'), and Grieg’s Piano Concerto played by “Britain’s top pianist” (The Times), Sir Stephen Hough.

With 30 appearances at the BBC Proms and 70 CD releases behind him, Sir Stephen Hough is described by the Sunday Times as “Britain’s greatest living magician of the keyboard”.

Sir Stephen’s performances are described by the most discriminating critics as “wonderful, almost miraculous” (The Times), with “musicianship of the highest order” (BBC Music Magazine), and he is “a pianist so free from difficulty that he can soar, inflect, and alter the course of a musical argument at the drop of a hat… with technique honed to a diamond-like brilliance” (Gramophone).

Sir Stephen combines his distinguished career as a pianist with those of composer and writer, and after the concert he will be available to sign copies of his memoir, Enough: Scenes from Childhood, described as “A wonderfully warm, witty and honest book about the musical journey of a pianistic superstar from childhood to young adult”.

Sir Stephen Hough was knighted for his extraordinary contribution cultural life in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2022.

THE APEX, BURY ST EDMUNDS

Tickets: From £34