SYMPHONIC DANCES FOR TWO PIANOS

Ivana Gavrić & Tim Horton

Crucible Playhouse, Sheffield
Thursday 26 February 2026, 7.00pm

Tickets:
£23
£14 UC, PIP & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s 

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DEBUSSY En blanc et noir (16’)
RAVEL La valse  (12’)
RACHMANINOV Symphonic Dances (30’) 

With their 2025 two-piano concert described as “piano playing at its most… visceral” (Bachtrack), Tim Horton and Ivana Gavrić return to the Crucible Playhouse for a concert of spellbinding and exhilarating music for two pianos. Rachmaninov’s own arrangement of his ‘Symphonic Dances’ takes centre stage, with its arresting rhythmic passages and virtuosic energy. Debussy’s ‘En blanc et noir’, by contrast, sees expressionist clouds of colour conjured from the two pianos, while Ravel’s poetic ‘La valse’ is best described by the composer himself: “Whirling clouds give glimpses, through rifts, of couples dancing. The clouds scatter, little by little. One sees an immense hall peopled with a twirling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth, fortissimo”. 

This concert will be recorded by BBC Radio 3 for future broadcast.

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RAVEL Maurice, La Valse for Solo Piano

In a thought-provoking discussion of Ravel’s La Valse, the composer George Benjamin wrote: ‘Whether or not it was intended as a metaphor for the predicament of European civilization in the aftermath of the Great War, its one-movement design plots the birth, decay and destruction of a musical genre: the waltz.’ Ravel himself was at pains to distance the work – written in 1919–20 – from any such immediate associations. In his published preface to the score, he described the scene he had tried to evoke: ‘Drifting clouds give glimpses, through rifts, of couples waltzing. The clouds gradually scatter, and an immense hall can be seen, filled with a whirling crowd. The scene gradually becomes illuminated. The light of chandeliers bursts forth. An imperial court about 1885.’ But of all Ravel’s orchestral works, this is the most dissonant, brutal and strange: the swaying one-in-a-bar of the Viennese waltz becomes a sinister undertow at the start, before the main theme begins to emerge, seeming to crawl towards the light, and gradually gaining in confidence. But at the end, it is brutally crushed in a way that is both stunning and disturbing. Ravel’s own solo piano version emphasizes the percussive characteristics of the music, especially its rhythmic energy.

Nigel Simeone 2014 (c)

About the Artists

Pianist Ivana Gavrić

Ivana Gavrić

Ivana Gavrić’s playing has been described as “altogether of an extraordinary calibre” (BBC Music Magazine) and “notable for its beautiful sound, musical integrity and introspection” (The Independent). She has attracted considerable praise for her interpretations of a broad repertoire, the Washington Post describing her playing as “impressive, insightful…ravishing”.

Ivana is drawn to composers like Janáček, Grieg and Chopin, who each take features of their respective homelands to create a distinctive musical voice, whether from the landscape and nature or from elements of folk music and dance. A long-standing collaboration with the award-winning composer, Cheryl Frances-Hoad has led to solo works and more recently a concerto entitled Between the Skies, the River and the Hills written for Ivana. Ivana is also committed to performing works by female composers of the past, particularly Cécile Chaminade and Dora Pejačević. Read more.

Tim Horton

Tim Horton is one of the UK’s leading pianists, equally at home in solo and chamber repertoire. He is a founder member of both the Leonore Piano Trio and Ensemble 360 and has been a regular guest pianist with the Nash Ensemble. He was invited to make his solo debut at Wigmore Hall in 2016 where he will be giving further solo recitals in the coming seasons. Between 2011 and 2015 Tim presented a complete Beethoven Sonata cycle at the Crucible Studio, Sheffield for Music in the Round, and was invited to return to perform a cycle of Schubert Sonatas from 2017-2019. He is currently performing a cycle of concerts based around the composer Chopin for Music in the Round. Read more.