Archive for: Live Concert

Elgar Introduction and Allegro
Mozart Concerto for Horn No.4 in E flat, K.495
Cecilia McDowall Off the Ground
Britten Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings

London Mozart Players
James Gilchrist tenor
Ben Goldscheider horn
Simon Blendis director

LMP’s concert at SMITF in May is simply a ‘must-see’. Dazzling young horn virtuoso Ben Goldscheider performs two giant works in the repertoire, Mozart’s best loved Horn Concerto, the No. 4, and Britten’s expressive and beautiful Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, in which he is joined by tenor James Gilchrist. When Benjamin Britten combined a tenor voice, a string orchestra and a horn in the raw; he discovered a fantastic new world – where old poems surge and toss on fresh sea breezes, and distant music echoes and rustles through the night. With sublime works by Elgar and Cecilia MacDowall also on the programme, this really is the dream ticket.

Please note that this performance will last approximately 75 minutes without interval.

James Gilchrist began his working life as a doctor, turning to a full-time career in music in 1996. His musical interest was fired at a young age, singing first as a chorister in the choir of New College, Oxford, and later as a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge. A prolific and versatile recitalist, James enjoys imaginative and varied programming in collaborations with pianists Anna Tilbrook and Julius Drake, and harpist Alison Nicholls. Recent appearances include a Schubertiade weekend at St John Smith Square and Schwanengesang coupled with Beethoven An die Ferne Geliebte at the Wigmore Hall. James recently returned to the Wigmore Hall to begin his project with Anna Tilbrook, Schumann and the English Romantics, pairing Schumann song cycles with new commissions from leading composers, Sally Beamish, Julian Philips and Jonathan Dove, setting English poetry of the Romantic period.

Nominated by the Barbican as an ECHO Rising Star, during the 2021/22 season Ben Goldscheider gives recitals at major concert halls including the Concertgebouw, Musikverein, Elbphilharmonie and Köln Philharmonie, including an especially commissioned new work by Mark Simpson. At the age of 18 Ben was a Concerto Finalist in the 2016 BBC Young Musician Competition. Since then he has made his debut at the BBC Proms, and appeared as soloist with the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg, the Aurora, Britten Sinfonia, English Chamber, Royal Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, Lucerne Symphony, Manchester Camerata, Prague Philharmonia and Sinfonie Orchester Berlin. He has worked with conductors James Gaffigan, Nicholas Collon, Mark Wigglesworth, Kristiina Poska, Radek Baborak, Andrew Gourlay and Jessica Cottis, and recorded the solo horn call from Wagner’s Siegfried with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder.

Born in London, in 2020 Ben completed his studies with honours at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin with Radek Baborák. He was a prize-winner at the 2019 YCAT International Auditions.

Karl Jenkins The Armed Man (Mass for Peace)
Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending
Britten Simple Symphony

London Mozart Players
Simon Blendis (director/violin)
Choirs and young players from Trinity School, Whitgift School, Old Palace School

Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man is one of the nation’s best-loved contemporary works. A choral tour de force beloved the world over, this evocative work is inspired by texts from a variety of Eastern and Western sources, including poetry, the Muslim call to prayer, the medieval tradition of the ‘l’homme armé’ and the Mahabharata, among others, which are combined with the texts of the traditional Latin mass. From the menacing air of the Sanctus to the serenely beautiful cello solo of the Benedictus, The Armed Man ranges from the intense heat of battle to poignant reflection, maintaining the narrative that peace is always better than war.

In Vaughan Williams’ 150th anniversary year, LMP performs one of his most popular works The Lark Ascending, with LMP director Simon Blendis performing the iconic solo. Suffused with nostalgic melodies evoking the English countryside, the work was first performed in 1921, and is perhaps an elegiac lament for a generation lost in the trenches of the First World War. Also on the programme is the delightful Simple Symphony by life-long pacifist Benjamin Britten.

At a time when war is in the headlines, this concert brings together hundreds of young people from the Whitgift Foundation Schools who will join Croydon’s resident orchestra, the London Mozart Players, under the baton of Nicholas Chalmers, to perform these emotionally charged works at Fairfield’s iconic concert hall.

Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem
Finzi Lo, The Full, Final Sacrifice

London Mozart Players
Exeter Philharmonic Choir
Howard Ionascu conductor
Jessica Cale soprano
Timothy Nelson baritone

Exeter Philharmonic Choir celebrates its 175th anniversary with a performance of Brahms’ great work, Ein deutsches Requiem. The programme includes Lo, The Full, Final Sacrifice by Gerald Finzi, a rare opportunity to hear this piece accompanied by full orchestra.

London Mozart Players
Simon Blendis director
Michael Cox flute

Symphony No.34 in C major K. 338
Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major, K. 313
Symphony No.40 in G minor, K. 550

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

In the spot where the desert meets the sea and the red mountains cast their shadow from above; at a meeting point between Asia and Africa, the greatest musicians from all over the world meet once a year to play music, give master-classes and workshops. Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city is its leading tourist resort, visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. The Eilat Chamber Music Festival was founded seven years ago by Leonid Rozenberg, who serves today as the artistic and general director of the festival. In its six years of existence, the festival hosted the best international and Israeli musicians, who gave exciting performances to music from the time of Monteverdi and until the very recent musical compositions.

The 14th Eilat International Chamber Music Festival will present renowned classical music artists from Europe alongside other established world-famous artists. This year, the festival is hosting two orchestras, famous soloists, programs of classical and Baroque music, jazz, music for various instruments, vocal music, with a rousing, foot-tapping Flamenco event to wind up the festival.

Haydn The Creation, Hob. XXI:2

London Mozart Players
Isata Kanneh-Mason piano
Delyana Lazarova conductor

Prokofiev Symphony No.1, Op. 25 ‘Classical’
Clara Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.7
Rossini Overture to L’italiana in Algheri
Mendelssohn Symphony No.4 in A major, Op.90 ‘Italian’

The concerts opens with Prokofiev’s effervescent ‘Classical’ Symphony, which cleverly juxtaposes 20th-century style with the traditional four-movement symphony – with some added parody and humour. But the spotlight is on our soloist Isata Kanneh-Mason, who performs Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto, which Schumann composed at the tender age of 14. A BBC Young Musician finalist, four-time winner of the Royal Academy Iris Dyer Piano Prize (among many other prizes) and multi-scholarship winner, Isata is much in demand in concert halls around the UK and abroad. Isata recently recorded Schumann’s Piano Concerto in her much-celebrated debut album Romance. Rossini’s Overture to L’italiana in Algheri sets the scene for the second part of the concert, which centres on Mendelssohn’s jaunty and optimistic Italian Symphony.

‘She is a pianist who makes lines sing beautifully and virtuosic passages dance, finding intimacy and eloquence at telling moments…’ – BBC Music Magazine.

London Mozart Players
Jonathan Bloxham conductor
Shoshanah Sievers violin

Mozart Overture to The Magic Flute
Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
Mendelssohn Symphony No.3 in A minor, Op. 56, ‘Scottish’

Solo violinist Shoshanah Sievers, supported by Grayshott Concerts since 2007 and currently studying at the Royal College of Music, returns to Grayshott for an evening of beautiful music including Bruch’s Violin Concerto, Mozart’s Magic Flute and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 3.

Shoshanah has previously delighted Grayshott audiences with performances including Enchantment, a new work written especially for her by Karl Jenkins which premiered here in October 2020. Returning here accompanied by the London Mozart Players, conducted by Jonathan Bloxham, join us for another mesmerising performance from this young talent.

London Mozart Players
Pegasus Chamber Choir
Adrian Butterfield conductor

Charlotte Bowden soprano
Alexander Chance countortenor
Matthew Keighley tenor
Jerome Knox bass

Handel Messiah

Join us for the ultimate in theatrical classical music with a full performance of Handel’s Messiah! from London Mozart Players and Pegasus, one of London’s top choirs, conducted by Adrian Butterfield. Since its premiere some 280 years ago, Messiah! has become the single most-performed piece of classical music worldwide.

Handel’s oratorio is based on the Old and New Testaments and delivered here in a most fitting venue at St Luke’s Grayshott. Now often associated with Christmas, it was in fact originally written for Easter, as while the first section focuses on the birth of Christ, it subsequently moves on to cover his death, and resurrection with the wonderful Hallelujah chorus.

London Mozart Players
Crouch End Festival Chorus
David Temple conductor
Julia Doyle soprano
Rebecca Alfonwy-Jones alto
Ronald Samm tenor
Ashley Riches bass-baritone

Felix Mendelssohn Vom Himmel hoch
Fanny Hensel Lockung
Felix Mendelssohn Psalm 42
Fanny Hensel Hiob Cantata
Felix Mendelssohn Die erste Walpurgisnacht

From the drama of raging mountainside battles to exquisite choral textures, the music of Felix Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny Hensel contains a wealth of unforgettable experiences. In this concert Crouch End Festival Chorus and the London Mozartr Players present a selection of works from both siblings, giving Fanny the prominence she deserves alongside her better-known brother.

Works by Felix include his Die erste Walpurgisnacht, a dramatic cantata set on a dark mountain where the Druids and Christians are in conflict. Stylistically the music looks back to Haydn and forwards to Wagner and Mahler. Vom Himmel hoch is a beautiful work very much in the style of Felix’s great inspiration, J.S. Bach.

Fanny’s works include Lockung an exquisite a cappella part song, and the more substantial Hiob (Job) Cantata for chorus, soloists and orchestra.