Shostakovich’s quietly subversive Cello Concerto No 2 sits at the heart of a concert also showcasing Rachmaninov’s opus-numbered symphonic debut – a work teeming with Russian colour, expansive melodies, and protean energy. First though, we button-up for the London premiere of Kenneth Hesketh’s reworking of music from his opera The Overcoat. 


‘John Wilson is the most exciting British conductor since Simon Rattle’ declares the Sunday Times. And his Sinfonia of London just can’t help picking up awards. Sheku Kanneh-Mason is no stranger to glittering prizes himself. Having won the 2016 BBC Young Musician of the Year with a performance of Shostakovich’s first Cello Concerto, he’s latterly championed its sequel; ‘throwing down ‘a challenging gauntlet that probes ever deeper the composer’s enigmatic and gritty late style’. (The Arts Desk). 

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Sinfonia of London/John Wilson

Barbican Centre

Today’s concert is all about exploration and discovery, both musically and thematically.Peter Graham's Journey to the Centre of the Earth inspired by Jules Verne's novel, captures the adventurous spirit of the "Voyages Extraordinaires." Expect a musical journey full of excitement and imagination as you venture into the depths of the earth.

Royal Welsh College Wind Orchestra: Exploration

Bute Park

A tragic love story is perfect for the drama of ballet and opera – if not for the story’s protagonists! Prokofiev’s ballet depicts the most infamous ‘star-cross’d lovers’ of them all, Romeo and Juliet, with music that is a brilliant realisation of Shakespeare’s play and some of Prokofiev’s most memorable and instantly appealing work, while Wagner’s Prelude from Tristan und Isolde is a lushly hypnotic, yearning depiction of two more tragic lovers, this time from Renaissance romance. Pianist Clare Hammond performs Kenneth Hesketh’s Uncoiling the River, a piece which loops round itself, sinuous and labyrinthine, and explores our perception of the passing of time.

Kenneth Hesketh

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 15, 2024

Sinfonia of London/John Wilson · Barbican Centre

Nov 22, 2024

Royal Welsh College Wind Orchestra: Exploration · Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama

Dec 6, 2024

Star-Cross'd Lovers · Ulster Orchestra

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