Roderick Williams: for one night only – PRESS RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE

• London Mozart Players’ 7 o’clock Saturday Sessions continue with coloratura soprano Christina Johnson (Sat 23 May), and baritone Roderick Williams (Sat 30 May).
• Roderick’s recital will be available to view one time only, during the livestream at 7pm on Saturday.
• Accustomed to travelling the world as a soloist, Roderick continues to make music in his home village, visiting the garden of neighbouring pianist Lynn Arnold for an outdoor performance.
• On the programme for Roderick and Lynn’s concert are two of the finest song cycles from the English canon: George Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad and Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel.
• The series is part of At Home with LMP, the orchestra’s online programme.
• At Home with LMP continues with more exclusive performances, a player-to-player interview with Nicola Benedetti and a narrated family show, Peter and the Wolf, interviews and more creative collaborations between world-class musicians.

With new video content every day, At Home with LMP is the London Mozart Players’ response to the circumstances of lockdown. The players of the orchestra and star guests have joined forces to produce interviews, live recitals, premieres of new music and family fun. The project’s success is not only bringing the LMP’s music to new audiences of all ages, but also deepening the orchestra’s connection with existing friends and keeping the players working and creating together.

One of the most popular strains of At Home with LMP is the weekly Saturday Session. Visit the LMP’s Facebook page on a Saturday night at 7 o’clock and you’ll tune into a half-hour of music broadcast live from the players’ homes. So far the Sessions have given a platform to such artists as violinist Ruth Rogers and guitarist Craig Ogden, and they have shone a spotlight on the brilliant and rich solo repertoires of orchestral instruments in performances by harpist Rosanna Rolton, flute player Michael Cox and violist Bryony Gibson-Cornish. Most recently, pianist Melvyn Tan transformed his living room into a recital hall for a recital of Debussy, Beethoven and Granados’ poetic fantasy ‘The maiden and the nightingale’, showing up-close how he has earned a reputation as one of the industry’s most imaginative players.

Roderick Williams and Lynn Arnold’s recital, which broadcasts at 7pm on Saturday 30 May, will only be available to view during the livestream itself. So tune in on the dot or you’ll miss their concert programme celebrating great music written on British soil: George Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad, composed shortly after World War I, and Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel, based on poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. Rather than the high seas, their settings are the roads and byways of England, and Stevenson’s idea that ‘The world is a highway-side’ takes on new meaning at a time when we can’t stray far from our homes.

Roderick says: ‘One of the most frustrating things about lockdown for a collaborative musician is not being able to make music with anyone else.  I feel this very deeply as a singer.  So the relief of being able to perform something with (but not too near) Lynn Arnold was quite profound.  I am a singer and I want to sing.  If I don’t sing … then what am I?’

At Home with LMP continues into June with more exclusive performances, a player-to-player interview with violinist and passionate advocate of music education Nicola Benedetti, and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf narrated by an extra-special surprise guest. The orchestra will use their momentum to continue developing an online offer, presenting high-quality music with personality and player-led artistic direction, and to engage groups in the community less able to access classical music.

See more from At Home with LMP

For further information please contact: Jo Carpenter at [email protected]