Benjamin performed Britten's Piano Concerto at the First Night of the inaugural BBC Proms Dubai this week with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner. In his review for The National, Rob Garratt comments:
"The 24-year-old pianist Benjamin Grosvenor stole the show at the first night of the BBC Proms Dubai, sitting down to play Benjamin Britten’s Piano Concerto ... Stacked any way, the work offers its interpreter a brazen show of virtuosity from a composer eagerly affirming his mark, and compatriot and Proms favourite Grosvenor bathed himself in the score’s showy trills and dramatic runs, especially in the Toccata’s extended unaccompanied piano solo."
Britten gave the concerto its premiere at the BBC Proms in 1938 when he was just 24 years old, the same age Benjamin is now. Also on the programme was British composer Gary Carpenter’s orchestral showpiece Dadaville, Mohammed Fairouz's orchestral tone-poem Pax Universalis – dedicated to the children who have fallen victim to global conflict - and William Walton’s First Symphony.