The première of Brahms’s grandiose, nearly 50-minute-long Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major took place in Budapest in 1881, with Brahms playing the solo, conducted by Ferenc Erkel and Ferenc Liszt sitting in the auditorium. The latter was generous in his praise of the work (even though he was not on friendly terms with Brahms and his music). This time the principal solo is played by Berlin-resident Israeli pianist Matan Porat. The young artist, who has played at Carnegie Hall and the Barbican Centre, was a student of the New York Juilliard School of Music and has studied under Murray Perahia and Maria João Pires. The second half is devoted to one of the core works of the symphonic repertoire, the Richard Strauss symphonic poem putting to music the philosophical novel by Nietzsche, Also sprach Zarathustra.