Details
St John's Smith Square
Smith Square
City of Westminster
London
SW1P 3HA
England
Programme
Johann Baptist Cramer – Piano Concert No.4 in C, Op.38
Performers
Howard Shelley – piano
London Mozart Players
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
To celebrate Conductor Laureate Howard Shelley’s 70th birthday, the 2019/20 London Mozart Players’ Piano Explored lunchtime series will feature a selection of Howard’s favourite piano concertos, including this gem by Johann Cramer which has all the delights of an early Christmas present! Howard’s illuminating deconstructions will accompany a performance by the London Mozart Players alongside Howard at the piano. These popular lunchtime concerts are as fun as they are enjoyable!
Cramer, a renowned pianist, was greatly admired by Beethoven and considered his equal if not his superior in technical perfection. Also a prolific composer, Cramer’s works contain complex embellishments that showed off his prodigious talent and his Piano Concerto No.4 demonstrates this perfectly, with its unusual cadenza in the final movement to which Howard Shelley, a leading exponent of the underrated Cramer, will bring all his dazzling, virtuosic brilliance. This ambitious finale follows two contrasting movements: the first poised and Mozartian, the second deliciously lyrical. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear Cramer’s exciting work, played by a master of the keyboard.
‘[Shelley] continues to find a treasure trove of relatively unexplored pastures which now deserve to be heard in public more often.’ Music Web International on Howard Shelley’s recording of Cramer’s Piano Concerto No. 2