Tom Poster steps in for Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Pianist Tom Poster will replace Pierre-Laurent Aimard as soloist in performances of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No 2 with Principal Conductor Robin Ticciati this week at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh (26 January) and City Halls, Glasgow (27 January).

Pierre-Laurent Aimard has had to withdraw due to a finger injury.

Tom Poster won First Prize at the Scottish International Piano Competition in 2007 and the Ensemble Prize at the Honens International Piano Competition in 2009. He enjoys recital partnerships with Alison Balsom, Guy Johnston and Jennifer Pike, and has collaborated with the Brodsky, Endellion, Medici, Sacconi and Skampa Quartets as well as performing an unusually wide-ranging concerto repertoire with orchestras around the world. He recently gave a series of performances with Steven Isserlis at the Wigmore Hall and returned to the BBC Proms in both solo and chamber repertoire. He also gave the world premiere of a solo piano work by Benjamin Britten on BBC Radio 3 to mark the composer’s birthday. He made his SCO debut in April 2010, playing Ligeti’s notoriously virtuosic Piano Concerto.

When it was written in 1881, Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto was the biggest ever; though Brahms himself humorously referred to it as “quite a little piano concerto”. Despite its vast scale, however, Brahms maintains an almost chamber-music equality between piano and orchestra. It is performed in these concerts with Haydn’s Symphony No 22 in E-flat ‘Philosopher’ and Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto for 13 instruments.