Resident orchestra London Mozart Players bring a stylish programme of music with a distinctly French theme to the Phoenix Hall in January 2020, with very special guest, BBC Young Musician 2016 winner – cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason.
LMP brings a soupçon of Gallic charm to Croydon with a classical concert full of elegant delights. The programme includes Mozart’s Paris Symphony with its grand, thrilling opening and Bizet’s youthful masterpiece, his Symphony in C – a glorious homage to his mentor Charles Gounod. Before Ravel’s beautifully orchestrated Pavane pour une infante défunte, the crème de la crème of young British talent will join the orchestra for Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33 – one of the best-loved of 19th-century concertos.
Soloist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who delighted the worldwide audience at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, will bring all his virtuosic skills to Saint-Saëns’ gorgeous work. Rather than a Romantic cliché of soloist in conflict with the orchestra, the composer integrates the cello into the orchestral fabric, and yet at the same time ingeniously keeps the cello front and centre throughout this lyrical and enchanting piece. No need to cross the Channel for style and elegance, just come to Croydon’s finest concert venue.