photo Mark Allen
This concert is part of a European summer tour which will also visit Snape Maltings, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Helsinki Music Centre. Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Kevin John Edusie renew their partnership which began in 2017 when conductor, soloist and orchestra made their BBC Proms debut together. This tour features Sheku as soloist in Shostakovich's 2nd Cello Concerto performed alongside Brian's Nabors Pulse which is, in the composer's words, a contemplation of daily life as we know it, combined with thoughts of life in nature, and the programme ends with the first performance in Lucerne of William Dawson's African-American Folk Symphony which was first performed in 1934 by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Leopold Stokowski and then revised in 1952 incorporating a rhythmic foundation inspired by the composer's journey to West Africa.
The Summer Festival began with the youth formation of the Chineke! Orchestra, and it now comes to an end with the adult ensemble. “Championing change and celebrating diversity in classical music” is the motto of this multi-ethnic orchestra, about which one can only marvel: “Chineke! is an exciting and imperative idea,” declares the star conductor Sir Simon Rattle, for example. “It will enrich classical music for generations. How strange that we didn’t think of it sooner.” In the final concert, the Chineke! Orchestra will be conducted by Kevin John Edusei, a graduate of the Lucerne Festival Academy and a master student of Pierre Boulez. The young English cello virtuoso Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who stirred an audience of billions at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, will perform Shostakovich’s Second Cello Concerto. This will be complemented by works by two Black composers: the rhapsody Pulse by British composer Brian Raphael Nabors, who was born in 1991, which traces the rhythm of the universe; and William L. Dawson’s African-American Folk Symphony, which was premiered in 1934 by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski.
Programme:
Brian Nabors Pulse
Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 2
William Dawson African-American Folk Symphony
Kevin John Edusei, conductor & Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello