ONLINE EVENT: Piano Explored – Hummel Zoom Q&A

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Join us for our second ‘Watch Party’ Zoom Q&A with Howard Shelley and members of the LMP directly after the third Piano Explored concert (Hummel Piano Concerto No. 4) on Thursday 22nd April at 2.30pm. If it’s anything like our first zoom Q&A after the Mozart No.21, it will be full of enlightening (and amusing) answers from Howard and the LMP team. Tickets are free, but numbers are limited!

Please note registrations via the website close at 1pm.

The Zoom link will be sent to all participants before 1:00pm on Thursday 22nd April. If you don’t receive the link by then, please check your spam folder. If you wish to register after 1pm, then please email info@lmp.org for the link.

Mozart Zoom Q&A

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Join us for an enlightening Zoom Q&A with Howard Shelley and members of the LMP directly after the second Piano Explored concert (Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21) on Thursday 18 March. You’ll get some extra insights from Howard as well as a preview of the next concert in the series. Please note registrations via the website close at 1pm.

The Zoom link will be sent to all participants at 1:00pm on 18 March. In case you don’t get the link, please check your spam folder. If you wish to register after 1pm, then please email info@lmp.org for the link.

ONLINE CONCERT: Piano Explored – Mozart & Moscheles

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Mozart Piano Concerto No.6 in B-flat major, K.238
Moscheles Piano Concerto 1 in F major, Op.45

London Mozart Players
Howard Shelley Piano

Directing from the piano, Howard Shelley introduces a two-concerto concert that pairs a Mozart masterpiece with an unknown gem. Mozart’s beautifully expressive Piano Concerto No. 6, written when the composer was only 20, shows young Mozart at his finest and hints at the expressive intensity to come. Lively writing at the outset is followed by a refined and expressive slow movement reminiscent of the Andante of concerto no.21, before a finale packed with terpsichorean themes brings the concerto to an exuberant end. In the hands of the LMP and Howard Shelley, Mozart’s charming melodies will dance between the pillars of St John’s Smith Square’s stunning baroque interior. Moscheles may be a new name for many, but Mozart lovers will find much to admire in his 1819 piano concerto, which is packed with Mozartean grace and lyrical melody. Howard Shelley, an acclaimed exponent of repertoire which bridges the Classical and Romantic periods, will bring stylistic elegance and nimbleness to this delightful work, bringing the season to a lively end.

‘Shelley’s performances combine spirit and finesse’ Classic FM

Want to know more about the pieces. Download our Piano Explored brochure.

 

Having trouble buying or watching? Try our help and FAQs.

 

 

ONLINE CONCERT: Piano Explored – Hummel

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Hummel Piano Concerto No.4 in E, Op.110

London Mozart Players
Howard Shelley piano

Johann Nepomuk Hummel was one of the most talented pianist/composers of his day, and a musical ‘bridge’ between the Classical and Romantic eras. Hummel’s works are full of joie-de-vivre, their harmonic and lyrical variety showcasing his prodigious, virtuosic talent. If you are unfamiliar with Hummel, then the E major piano concerto is the perfect starting point, and Howard Shelley, a champion of this much-underrated composer, will bring all his consummate musicianship to the piece’s playful piano passagework. Take an hour with the London Mozart Players and Howard Shelley to judge Hummel’s genius for yourself, you will be convinced.

‘Howard Shelley proves a supremely eloquent advocate of the composer, with his refined, shapely phrasing, crystalline textures’ BBC Music Magazine

Want to know more about the pieces. Download our Piano Explored brochure.

Having trouble buying or watching? Try our help and FAQs.

 

 

ONLINE CONCERT: Piano Explored – Mozart

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Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K.467

London Mozart Players
Howard Shelley piano

In March 2021, our Piano Explored concert was dedicated to a real favourite of the classical repertoire. Mozart composed his twenty-first piano concerto in a hugely busy period of his life but the music is perfectly poised, and the concerto has the majesty and immensity of his greatest symphonies. The beautifully expressive slow movement, which in the 1960s experienced a burst of fame as the theme for art house film ‘Elvira Madigan’, verges on the operatic, with a quiet melody moving over a pulsating accompaniment. This concert also includes Howard Shelley’s enlightening insights into the piece, delivered before the LMP and the impeccably stylish Shelley perform this technically demanding and hugely popular masterpiece.

‘He is an artist of electric vitality and cultured exuberance’ Fanfare, USA

Want to know more about the pieces. Download our Piano Explored brochure.

Having trouble buying or watching? Try our help and FAQs.

 

 

ONLINE CONCERT: Piano Explored – Saint-Saëns & Mendelssohn

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Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.22
Mendelssohn Capriccio Brillant in B minor, Op.22

London Mozart Players
Simon Blendis leader
Howard Shelley piano

The spring 2021 season of Piano Explored opened with Saint-Saëns much-admired second piano concerto – a tour de force for any pianist. By turns tempestuous, flighty and lyrical, this concerto breaks convention by having each succeeding movement faster than the last in a structured accelerando, ending with an exhilarating conclusion. Berlioz described Saint-Saëns as ‘an absolutely shattering master pianist’, and in Howard Shelley we have our own master at work. In this lunchtime concert, Saint-Saëns is paired with Mendelssohn’s a charming one-movement Capriccio Brillant, which reveals the best in sophisticated pianistic art. The gentle melancholy of the Andante and the contrasting dizzying arpeggios, chromatic runs and octave leaps of the Allegro will allow Howard Shelley to demonstrate his virtuosic skills and profound musicality. Howard’s entertaining and informative introduction will be followed by a performance of both works by the LMP with Howard directing from the piano.

‘[An] aristocratic command of the glittering keyboard pyrotechnics.’ Daily Telegraph

Want to know more about the pieces. Download our Piano Explored brochure.

Having trouble buying or watching? Try our help and FAQs.

 

 

Live Concert: Celebrating Beethoven

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Beethoven Coriolan Overture, Op.62
Beethoven Violin Concerto in D, Op.61

London Mozart Players
Jonian Ilias Kadesha violin

LMP is back, performing the best in classical music to a live audience! Due to the restrictions imposed by Covid-19 we are taking our Autumn 2020 concerts online as our ‘Classical Club’ which launches at the end of September. We’d love as many of you as possible to be in our socially-distanced audiences for the concert recordings; live music needs a live audience! Our third concert in the series where we can accommodate an audience will be recorded under Covid-19 restrictions at the beautiful baroque gem that is St John’s Smith Square, one of LMP’s favourite concert halls. And we have a terrific concert for you, with an exceptional soloist.

The musical celebrations to mark Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year were put on hold with the arrival of Covid-19, but we can all enjoy a late salute to the musical genius in November, when LMP performs Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture and his Violin Concerto. The Overture was inspired by Heinrich von Collin’s play Coriolan, rather than Shakespeare’s tragedy, and the music reflects the contrasting moods in the story – Coriolan’s aggression and his mother’s gentle pleading. Beethoven’s Violin Concerto is one of his most serene works, reflecting the composer’s relative personal happiness at the time. This revolutionary concerto takes us on a journey different from any violin concerto that preceded it: from a lyrical first movement, to a larghetto second movement and finally, a joyous rambunctious finale. It’s a hugely satisfying masterpiece that perfectly displays Beethoven’s genius. We welcome rising star and YCAT artist Jonian Ilias Kadesha as soloist for this final concert of the series. PLUS there may be one or two extra musical flourishes!

 

Ticket Info

To book your ticket, please click the red ‘Book’ button at the bottom of this page and follow the instruction on the screen.

Once you have booked your ticket, you will be emailed confirmation of your purchase and your Print at Home tickets, which we ask you to bring along to the concert. You can either print them off or show them on your phone.

 

Seating at St John’s Smith Square

In accordance with government guidelines, you will be seated in a bubble the size of which corresponds to the number of tickets you have booked, with 2m between bubbles. Due to a recent change in government guidelines, you can only share a seating bubble with members of your household or support bubble.

If you are coming with a friend who is not part of your household or support bubble, please book your tickets separately as you need to be given two separate bubbles. If you write us an email to let us know who you are coming to the concert with, we’ll try our best to allocate you to two bubbles next to each other.

Upon arrival at St John’s a member of staff will guide you to your seating bubble. It is not permitted to switch or re-arrange seating bubbles.

Please do not attend the performance if you or anyone in your household feels unwell on the day of the performance or in the days leading up to the performance.

 

COVID-restrictions and safeguarding

In accordance with government guidelines, social distancing measures will be in place at the venue to ensure everyone’s safety.