SIR MARK ELDER conducts
ISATA KANNEH-MASON piano

WAGNER Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
MENDELSSOHN Piano Concerto No. 1
ELGAR Symphony No. 1

The spirited prelude to Wagner’s comic opera The Mastersingers of Nuremberg highlights his uncanny ability to build suspense with powerful orchestral tuttis and pregnant pauses. He also inserts “leitmotivs” – reoccurring melodies that represent characters in the opera.

Mendelssohn’s brilliant First Piano Concerto is packed with cascading scales that will undoubtedly showcase the exceptional skills of Elton John scholar and BBC Radio favorite Isata Kanneh-Mason.

Elgar wrote his heroic First Symphony to impress the famed conductor Hans Richter, who considered it “the greatest symphony of modern times, written by the greatest modern composer, and not only in this country.”