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Concert Heaven Concert Hell

BBC Music Magazine

|

September 2025

Top artists recall their best and worst performances

- Charlotte Smith Editor

Concert Heaven Concert Hell

THIS MONTH Francesco Piemontesi pianist

CONCERT HEAVEN

Brahms Piano Quintet Francesco Piemontesi (piano); Emerson String Quartet Geneva (February 2016)

Heaven for me is succeeding in making music with absolute integrity and inviting the audience into that experience. Especially when you play with others – you feel you are not just with people on stage who are playing together; something is happening and you are one with them and the music. When that happens it’s a feeling which is difficult to describe; it’s as if

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