The kaleidoscopic artist: the composer, performer, and conductor. Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Jörg Widmann all exemplify these multiple roles with equal brilliance and flair. In this concert, Aurora Orchestra explores the music of these extraordinaires, from the 18th century to the modern day, with pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and clarinetist Timothy Orpen.

From a young age, Mozart dazzled audiences with his prodigious talents at the keyboard and in composition. With his signature poise and dynamism, pianist Bavouzet illuminates the composer’s musical genius in the virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 15.

Praised by some as a 21st-century Mozart, Jörg Widmann is one of the most widely admired writer-virtuoso-conductors of our time. Aurora principal clarinetist Timothy Orpen performs his wildly inventive Fantasie for solo clarinet, a tour de force that exploits the full range and capabilities of the instrument.

At the heart of the programme are three works by another musical extraordinaire, Mendelssohn: the stormy Hebrides Overture inspired by the composer’s travels to the Scottish islands; the heartfelt Andante from the Clarinet Sonata (heard here in Widmann’s orchestral arrangement); and the fiery first symphony written by the composer at the startlingly young age of 15.

‘Bavouzet’s playing has precision, finesse and fiery elegance….’ The Guardian

Aurora principal clarinetist Timothy Orpen replaces Jörg Widmann with Nicholas Collon conducting.

See this evening’s late-night Lock-In: Beethoven and the Dinosaurs