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

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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

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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

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Live Concert: Piano Explored – Saint-Saëns and 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 seventh season of Piano Explored, postponed from October 2020 to February 2021, opens 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

This concert will be filmed and released online on Thursday 18 February – tickets available here