Scottish Sinfonia: Rachmaninoff 3rd Piano Concerto

Ireland: The Forgotten Rite
Bliss: A Colour Symphony
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, soloist: Geoffrey Duce

Conducted by Neil Mantle MBE

A warm welcome to our 2025-2026 season! We continue our highly successful Rachmaninoff series with his epic third concerto — one of the most technically demanding works in the entire piano repertoire. Edinburgh-born virtuoso Geoffrey Duce is now resident in the USA, where he is professor in the piano faculty at The University of Illinois. We are delighted to be welcoming him back to perform this titanic masterpiece with us!

The music of our shores has always been strongly represented in Scottish Sinfonia’s concerts, and on this occasion we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Master of The Queen’s Music, Sir Arthur Bliss. The Colour Symphony was commissioned by Elgar, no less, for the 1922 Three Choirs Festival. It was inspired by a book on Heraldry where the symbolic meanings are associated with various colours: purple, red, blue and green. It is a work rich in melody and poetry and we offer you a rare opportunity to hear it.