Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Benjamin Grosvenor Recital
Sheku Kanneh-Mason has been one of classical music’s biggest stars since winning the BBC Young Musician award in 2016 and performing at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, watched by an audience of billions. Now a Decca Classics recording artist, he has released five albums and performed with the world’s top orchestras. In collaboration with pianist and fellow Decca artist Benjamin Grosvenor, this concert includes Beethoven’s charming variations on Mozart’s Magic Flute, character pieces by Bloch and Boulanger, and epic sonatas by Beethoven and Rachmaninoff.
Acknowledgements:
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Program
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Seven Variations from Mozart’s Magic Flute, WoO 46
ERNEST BLOCH: Prayer from Jewish Life
NADIA BOULANGER: Three Pieces for Cello and Piano
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 5, No. 2
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Cello Sonata, Op. 19
Ernest Bloch's American Story
Ernest Bloch toured the United States as a conductor with a dance troupe in 1916, and when the tour fell apart, he decided to stay. Over the next 46 years, Bloch helped build and lead some of the country’s most influential musical institutions—serving as the founding director of the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1920, directing the San Francisco Conservatory of Music beginning in 1925, joining the University of California, Berkeley as Professor of Music in 1940 (becoming Professor Emeritus in 1952), and co-founding the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara—thereby shaping generations of American musicians.
These institutional contributions coincided with Bloch’s mature creative period in the United States, during which he forged a modern Jewish musical voice rooted in cantorial chant, introspective melody, and expressive harmony. Baal Shem (Nijioma Grevious, February 5 at Bing Concert Hall), composed in 1923—the year he applied for American citizenship—stands at the center of his chamber music and his “Jewish Cycle,” alongside Schelomo and Prayer from Jewish Life, translating European Jewish musical memory into an American concert-hall language.
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