The Festival Orchestra brings the curtain down on the 2026 Festival with two magnificent cornerstones of the Romantic era.  Brahms' huge 2nd piano concerto represents the culmination of everything that Brahms had learned as a lifelong connoisseur of pianistic technique,  and Schubert's  beautiful last symphony, the "Great" C major is confident, outgoing, discursive and expansive in nature.  

‘The grand romantic manner comes easily to Hamelin. Modern discipline, too, and his combination of finger power, firm engineering, caressing gentleness and playful wit makes him a natural for Brahms's second piano concerto’ (The Times)