LMP On Demand - Piano Explored: Mozart and Moscheles

London Mozart Players' Piano Explored lunchtime concert series at St John’s Smith Square has become a firm favourite with concert-goers. In just one hour, virtuoso pianist Howard Shelley OBE gives a witty and insightful introduction to one or two famous and not-so-famous works for piano and orchestra, before performing them with LMP. And for 2021, these concerts are online!

Directing from the piano, and live-streamed to our audience at home, Howard Shelley introduces a two-concerto lunchtime 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