The Canberra International Music Festival’s finale concert unites towering 20th century works and an exciting Festival commission to reveal the two-piano-plus-percussion ensemble at its most visceral and expressive.

Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances (1940), heard here in its original two-piano form, is his final musical statement – an autumnal work of rhythmic vigour, lush harmonies, and haunting reflection, culminating in a triumphant transformation of an Orthodox chant.

Festival composer-in-residence Fiona Hill approaches the form with a new work that stretches percussion instrumentally and performatively, generating exciting new sonic and dramaturgical languages. Her finely-honed command of timbre, combined with extensive training as a concert pianist, places her in a formidable position to engage with – and challenge – the surrounding 20th century heavyweight pieces.

Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (1913), arguably the most important work of the century, will be heard here in its two-piano version, stripped away by Stravinsky himself from its orchestrational colour to foreground the raw, percussive heart of this revolutionary ballet. Its premiere caused a riot, and its primal rhythms and tonal sounds still stun some hundred years later.