There’s almost nothing that Stephen Hough can’t play on the piano, but even he admits to being ‘overwhelmed’ by Brahms’s mighty First Piano Concerto. For him, this volcanic work is ‘a burst of pure, utter, natural genius’, and it’s true: if you think of Brahms as an easygoing old gent you’re in for a shock with this explosive youthful masterpiece. Hough plays it like no-one on earth – ‘thrillingly physical’ was one critic’s verdict – and even with a conductor as dynamic as Lionel Bringuier, it’s an impossible act to follow. So instead, Bringuier sets the scene with Brahms at his most powerful, and most personal: the mighty Tragic Overture..