Imogen Cooper makes her debut appearance with Aurora Orchestra for a programme which also features the first-ever performance of Beethoven’s second symphony at Kings Place.

Aurora begins the second season of its five-year journey through Mozart’s piano concertos with what is widely considered to be the twenty one year-old composer’s first great masterpiece: the so-called ‘Jeunehomme’ concerto. Imogen Cooper appears as soloist for this watershed work, marking Mozart’s single greatest single leap forward on the path to full maturity – a piece which Alfred Brendel has described as nothing short of “a wonder of the world”.

Alongside Mozart’s joyful and exuberant music the orchestra performs two works by composers who were also entering their creative prime, but for whom the creative process was marked by struggle.  Beethoven’s second symphony was penned during the onset of deafness, amid the realisation that it would be incurable. The limpid beauty of Schumann’s Six Canonic Studies, meanwhile, belies a personal context of depression and obsession: originally written for organ and later adapted by Debussy for two pianos, these ravishing studies are heard here for the first time in a new arrangement for chamber orchestra by Robin Holloway.

‘The qualities that make Cooper quite simply one of the finest pianists this country has produced make her perfect for Mozart duty.’ Gramophone
‘Cooper remains one of the sovereign pianists: everything she touches exudes integritythe highest understanding coupled with a melting beauty of sound.’ International Piano Magazine

Pre-concert talk: 6.15pm, Hall Two
For Alfred Brendel, the ‘Jeunehomme’ concerto is nothing less than ‘a wonder of the world’ – Mozart’s first great masterpiece, which the composer would later equal but never surpass. This special pre-concert talk is a rare opportunity to hear Brendel in conversation with his close friend, soloist Imogen Cooper about a work which he ranks as one of his favourite piano concertos, and one which he chose to perform as part of his final public recitals in 2008.

Tickets for the pre-concert talk are free but limited and need to be booked via the Box Office: 020 7520 1440.

Find out more about the highlights of the 2017 season in our podcast featuring Aurora’s Principal Conductor Nicholas Collon.