Mozart | Mark Simpson | Mahler at The Bridgewater Hall
Will Fulford-Jones
Mozart – Idomeneo – Overture, three arias and March (24’)
Mark Simpson – Clarinet Concerto (world premiere) (20’)
Mahler – Symphony No. 4 (56’)
The world premiere of Mark Simpson’s Cello Concerto, performed brilliantly by Leonard Elschenbroich, was one of the highlights of the BBC Philharmonic’s 2017-18 season. Just over a year later, the newest work from the BBC Philharmonic’s Composer in Association receives its world premiere in the concert that closes the orchestra’s 2018-19 season, and the soloist this time is the composer himself. Still the only person to have won both the BBC Young Musician and BBC Young Composer of the Year awards, Simpson will be giving the first performance of his Clarinet Concerto this evening under Ben Gernon, the orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor. Simpson, though, isn’t the only soloist on the programme: leading British soprano Elizabeth Watts will be opening the concert with three arias from Mozart’s opera Idomeneo, then returning for Mahler’s expansive Fourth Symphony.
Mark Simpson – clarinet
Elizabeth Watts – soprano
Ben Gernon – conductor
