One of the most distinctive artists of a generation, Stephen Hough joins your RPO to perform Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.1, a piece that is romantic, inventive, and unapologetically Brahms. The first half of the program details two different composers in the process of developing their own unique harmonic language. The first, Claude Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, is just a precursor to the impressionist movement of which Debussy would soon be a leading figure (although he himself never fully accepted that reputation). Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, although tonal, hints at the composer’s dissatisfaction with traditional harmonic structure.