PROGRAMME

Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.3, Op.37

1. Allegro con brio
2. Largo
3. Rondo. Allegro

INTERVAL
Dvořák, Cello Concerto in B minor, Op.104
1. Allegro
2. Adagio ma non troppo
3. Allegro Moderato

Bath Philharmonia is generously supported

by the Roper Family Charitable Trust
 Introduction to the music by Jason Thornton,
Music Director, Bath Philharmonia
At the end of February 2020, Bath Phil played the grand
final cadence of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo & Juliet at the
Wiltshire Music Centre. The applause was rousing and
warm and the musicians all came off stage smiling and
on a high. As per normal, I said goodbye to all the players
with a cheery “…see you in a couple of weeks”. Nearly two
hundred days later we are finally and safely back together.
I once said in an interview that being a musician is not
only a job, it defines who you are. When you are unable
to express who you are for a long period of time, it is very
difficult and combined with a decimation of income it is
dreadful. Many of my friends and colleagues have faced
all sorts of hardships, both financially and in terms of their
mental health, but I have been overwhelmed by their sense
of hope and dogged resilience.
Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.3
Beethoven introduced his third Piano Concerto at a benefit
concert on 5th April 1803 at the Theatre Wein. The programme
was entirely Beethoven including ‘Christ on the Mount of Olives’,
Symphony No.1 and Symphony No.2. According to Beethoven’s
pupil Ferdinand Ries, the only rehearsal for the entire concert
began at 8am and was a complete shambles. The orchestra was
the Viennese ‘second-string’, the city’s best players had been
hired by a competing presenter for a performance of Haydn’s
The Creation that same evening. “It was frightful!” Ries recalled,
“At half past two everyone was exhausted and dissatisfied. Prince
Karl Lichnowsky [one of Beethoven’s patrons] who was at the
rehearsal from its beginning, sent out for large baskets of buttered
bread, cold meats, and wine. He invited all the musicians to help
themselves, and a collegial atmosphere was restored.”
Beethoven had not finished writing out the solo piano part
for the 3rd Piano Concerto in time for the concert day. On a
practical level, he felt it was unnecessary as he himself was
the soloist and the piece was in his head and in any case the
practice of the time would have allowed for a fair amount of
improvisation. However, Beethoven may have made a mis-
judgment in failing to notate the solo part prior to the premiere.
Ignaz von Seyfried, the Theatre an der Wien’s conductor, who
was turning pages for Beethoven during the concerto, left an
alarmed account of his experience; “I saw almost nothing but
empty leaves; at the most, on one page or another a few Egyptian
hieroglyphs, wholly unintelligible to me, were scribbled down
to serve as clues for him; for he played nearly all of the solo part
from memory since, as was so often the case, he had not had time
to set it all down on paper. He gave me a secret glance whenever
he was at the end of one of the invisible passages and my scarcely
concealable anxiety not to miss the decisive moment amused him
greatly and he laughed heartily during the jovial supper which we
ate afterwards.”
The first movement has a dark dramatic mood, whilst the second
is consoling and beautiful. The finale is a quirky yet powerful
conclusion to one of Beethoven’s greatest achievements.
Our performance is a tribute to hope and resilience and for
all of us involved, it marks a turning point as we all look to
a different future. I am so proud of everyone at Bath Phil
and the amazing way the orchestra has adapted to the
ever-changing restrictions and challenges of the past six
months. The highlight of Bath Phil’s Summer was delivering
over 100 hours of online music-making sessions to Young
Carers across B&NES and the South West, some of the most
isolated young people in our communities.
However far apart we are, music can bring us together and
this is one of the first live concerts with a live audience in
the UK since lockdown. I really hope you enjoy being safely
back in a concert hall as much as we do and let us all look
forward to a new future together.
Jason
Dvořák, Cello Concerto
Dvořák’s Cello Concerto is one the greatest of all
romantic concertos. It is full of beautiful melodies
and orchestrations and contains love, life and joy
and sadness. It also contains influences from other
composers particularly Wagner, but it never loses its
Bohemian roots of countryside and folk music, and I
think one of the most sunny, celebratory pieces in all
classical music.
In 1865 Dvořák fell in love with his piano pupil Josefina
Kaunitzova and proposed marriage. He was devastated
by Josefina’s rebuttal but eight years later married her
younger sister Anna. In 1894/5, Dvořák was in his third
year as Principal at New York’s National Conservatory
of Music. Whilst finding the hustle and bustle of New
York life difficult and demanding, combined with an
overwhelming homesickness for Bohemia, he was
enjoying a creative Indian summer as well as the
significant financial gain associated with his role at the
conservatory. His friend the cellist Hanus Wihan had
been suggesting a concerto for some years but Dvořák
thought the instrument didn’t have the ‘expressive
range’ to warrant the endeavour. Wihan persisted and
they collaborated on some smaller works including the
orchestration of the cello and piano work Silent Woods,
until eventually Dvořák began work on his concerto in
the autumn of 1894.
Whilst writing the second movement he received
a letter from Josefina (his now sister in law) saying
that she was very ill. This prompted Dvořák to include
Josefina’s favourite song “Leave me alone” as a
central theme of the second movement. Arriving
back in Bohemia in 1895 Dvořák received the news
that Josefina had died. He re-wrote the ending of the
concerto referring back to the song and including a
beautiful 65 bar elegy for Josefina. Love, life, joy and
sadness but always music.
 Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)
Isata Kanneh-Mason’s debut album, Romance, drew popular
and critical acclaim, entering the UK classical charts at No. 1
when it was released in July 2019 and leading Gramophone
magazine to extol the recording as “one of the most
charming and engaging debuts” and Classic FM to praise
Isata as “a player of considerable talent”. Isata recorded the
all-Clara Schumann disc for Decca Classics as an homage to
the composer and pianist in the year of what would have
been her 200th birthday, selecting works from across her
compositional output including solo piano pieces, a sonata,
chamber music with violinist Elena Urioste, transcriptions of
two of her husband Robert’s songs, and the piano concerto,
which she recorded with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Orchestra and conductor Holly Mathieson.
Since her studies with Joanna MacGregor and Carole
Presland at London’s Royal Academy of Music, Isata Kanneh-
Mason has embarked on a successful and increasingly busy
concert career as a solo artist, with concerto appearances,
solo recitals and chamber concerts throughout the UK and
abroad. She also continues to perform with her siblings,
including regular duo recitals with her brother, the cellist,
Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Recent highlights include appearances
at the Edinburgh Festival, Wigmore Hall, London, Théâtre
des Champs Elysées, Paris, Teatro della Pergola, Florence, and
an extensive ten-city North American tour, including their
debut recital at New York’s Carnegie Hall and a return to the
Vancouver Recital Society.
Isata has also performed in the Portland Piano Series in
Oregon, the Barbican Centre’s Sound Unbound festival, The
Color of Music Festival in South Carolina, at the Edinburgh,
Cheltenham, and Bath festivals, the Snape Proms, the
Musikfestspiele Saar, and in venues from Antigua and the
Cayman Islands, to Perth. During the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown
in spring 2020, she and her siblings performed in twice-
weekly livestreams from their family home in Nottingham to
audiences of thousands around the globe. Isata’s rendition
of the first movement of Beethoven’s third piano concerto
accompanied by a chamber ensemble comprised of her
Jason Thornton (Conductor)
Jason Thornton is Music Director of Bath Philharmonia. He has
conducted orchestras throughout the UK, Europe, America and
the Far East, including the RPO, London Mozart Players, City of
London Sinfonia, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Jykasyla Sinfonia
(Finland) and the Kaposvar Symphony Orchestra (Hungary).
Jason grew up in the West Midlands and was recipient of a
free musical education courtesy of Sandwell Music Service.
He switched viola playing for conducting at the age of 16,
conducting various youth ensembles and forming Sandwell
Sinfonia, his own orchestra inspired by collaborations with
friends. Studies for a PGCE brought him to Bath where he
formed Bath Philharmonia and since then has had an amazing
time making music with everyone from local school children to
brothers and sisters garnered over one million views. Future
live performances include at the Kissinger KlavierOlymp,
BBC Radio 3’s Wigmore lunchtime concert series, the
Salzburg Mozarteum, Klavier Festival Ruhr, the Kimmel
Center Philadelphia, and with the Sarasota, Gothenburg
Symphony, Hallé, Johannesburg Philharmonic, KwaZulu Natal
Philharmonic, and Paris Mozart orchestras. From the 20/21
season, Isata will become Young Artist in Residence with the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Isata reached her category final in the 2014 BBC Young
Musician competition, winning the Walter Todds Bursary for
the most promising musician. She has since performed several
times on television and radio, including on BBC Radio 3 In
Tune, the South Bank Sky Arts Awards, The Andrew Marr Show,
the Radio 3 RPS Awards, BBC2 Proms Extra, Radio 4 Front Row
and Woman’s Hour, Al Jazeera TV, BBC World Service, Channel
4, The One Show, ITV Born To Shine, BBC2 Classroom Heroes,
and a feature for CBS Sunday Morning. Isata made her debut
as a television presenter for the coverage of the 2019 BBC
Proms.
She completed her undergraduate degree at the Academy as
an Elton John scholar, and performed with Sir Elton in 2013
in Los Angeles. Isata is also grateful for support from the
Nottingham Soroptimist Trust, Mr and Mrs John Bryden, Frank
White, and Awards for Young Musicians.
some of the world’s finest
musicians including Renee
Fleming, Sir Willard White,
Joseph Calleja, Sumi Jo,
Nicola Benedetti, Jennifer
Pike, Tasmin Little, Sheku
Kanneh-Mason, Jess
Gillam, Peter Donohoe
and Stephen Hough.
Jason is also a Community Music Leader, directing many
creative learning projects throughout the UK and abroad in
numerous contexts, working with orchestras, schools, music
hubs, festivals and venues.
Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello)
Winner of the 2016
BBC Young Musician
competition, Sheku
Kanneh-Mason is in great
demand from orchestras
and concert halls worldwide.
He became a household
name in May 2018 after
performing at the Wedding
of the Duke and Duchess of
Sussex at Windsor Castle.
In January 2020, Sheku
released his second album,
Elgar, featuring the Cello
Concerto, which he recorded
at Abbey Road Studios
with Sir Simon Rattle and
the London Symphony
Orchestra. On its release,
it reached No. 8 in the
UK Official Album Chart,
making Sheku the youngest
classical instrumentalist and
the first cellist in history to
reach the UK Top 10.

Sheku has made debuts with orchestras such as the Seattle
Symphony, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France,
Netherlands Chamber Orchestra at the Concertgebouw, the
Atlanta Symphony, Japan Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Royal
Liverpool Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio
Symphony, and Baltimore Symphony orchestras. Forthcoming
highlights include performances with the City of Birmingham
Symphony, Toronto Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, and
Stockholm Philharmonic orchestras.
Recent recital performances include Wigmore Hall, Zurich
Tonhalle, Lucerne Festival, Festival de Saint-Denis, Théâtre
des Champs Elysées Paris, Teatro della Pergola Florence, and
a critically acclaimed tour of North America that took in
Los Angeles, Berkeley, St Paul, Vancouver, Ann Arbor, Boston,
Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Sheku’s recital debut at Carnegie
Hall New York. Upcoming recital debuts include London’s
Barbican Hall, L’Auditori Barcelona, Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional,
and the chamber hall of the Berlin Philharmonie.
Sheku is passionate about making music accessible to all
and is an ambassador for Music Masters and Future Talent.
During the Covid-19 lockdown in spring 2020, Sheku and his
siblings performed in livestreams from their family home in
Nottingham to audiences of hundreds of thousands.
Sheku is currently a full-time ABRSM Scholarship student at
the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Hannah Roberts.
He began learning the cello at the age of six with Sarah
Huson-Whyte and then studied with Ben Davies at the Junior
Department of the Royal Academy of Music where he held the
ABRSM Junior Scholarship. He has received masterclass tuition
from Guy Johnston, Robert Max, Alexander Baillie, Steven
Doane, Rafael Wallfisch, Jo Cole, Melissa Phelps, and Julian Lloyd
Webber and, in July 2017, participated in the Verbier Festival
Academy in masterclasses with Frans Helmerson and Miklos
Perenyi. A keen chamber musician, Sheku performs with his
sister, Isata and brother, Braimah, as a member of the Kanneh-
Mason Trio.
Sheku was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of
the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List.

Bath Philharmonia Bath Philharmonia is a charity and is reliant on the support

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Philharmonia inspires creativity; enhances wellbeing; reduces
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 Bath Philharmonia would like to thank
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