Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Sinfonia of London. John Wilson. Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham. 19 October 2024, 5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: William Ruff.

Photo credit: Ollie Ali.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Sinfonia of London. John Wilson. Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham. 19 October 2024,

5☆☆☆☆☆. Review: William Ruff.

“A demanding programme thrillingly performed by soloist, orchestra and conductor.”

Sheku playing in his home town of Nottingham isn’t so much a musical event as a rare natural phenomenon like a returning comet or meteor shower.  You don’t need to be a classical music buff to have followed his extraordinary career and, after an absence of six years from the RCH stage, it’s hardly surprising that this concert was a complete sell-out.  If anyone else had been playing the solo part in Shostakovich’s 2nd Cello Concerto, it is inconceivable that tickets would have been in such short supply.  It’s true that Sheku won the BBC Young Musician title in 2016 with the Russian composer’s 1st Concerto – but that’s the sort of work which grabs you by the throat from the outset and never lets you go. 

The 2nd Concerto couldn’t be more different.  Shostakovich was 60 when he wrote it and had just had major heart surgery.  What’s more, the work is dedicated to the memory of Anna Akhmatova, the great Russian poet whose loss the composer mourned.  It is a reflective piece and Sheku’s performance was deeply personal – not so much as playing the notes as allowing the music to speak through him, no matter how sombre and anguished its mood and no matter how exposed the solo part, how solitary and vulnerable.  There were many thrilling moments (such as the fanfare which begins the finale and the ensuing cadenza) and some of the composer’s most passionate music – but what will stay so hauntingly in the mind is the inwardness of the music, especially its ending, orchestral textures stripped bare and Sheku’s cello left alone playing a seemingly never-ending note whilst the wood block, tom-tom, snare drum, and xylophone beat out an eerily insistent tattoo - sounding like death knocking at the door.  You could have heard a pin drop…before the huge audience ovation.

Two things to add: for his encore Sheku put aside his bow and played a magical piece pizzicato.  Oh, and the audience got to hear the first half of the concerto’s second movement again.  One of Sheku’s strings snapped and had to be replaced.  These things happen in live performance and cool heads meant that the problem was soon fixed.

The concert opened with Pattersongs by British composer Kenneth Hesketh, based on material from his opera The Overcoat and a spikily modern version of the sorts of tongue-twisting songs made famous by Gilbert and Sullivan (think: Modern Major-General).  The piece is a fierce test of an orchestra’s sense of timing and razor-sharp ensemble and the sort of contemporary classical music in which John Wilson and his orchestra excels.

The final piece was Rachmaninov’s 1st Symphony whose first performance was one of music’s best known horror stories, mostly due to the conductor (Glazunov) being reportedly drunk.  The young composer fled the building, put aside the score and it wasn’t heard again until two years after his death.  It’s now recognised for its originality, zest and the sort of passion you associate with a young artist who’s emerged from a painful love affair.  It needs a conductor who can ‘play’ the orchestra, just as Rachmaninov played the piano: i.e. with freedom, flexibility and without inhibition.  John Wilson has all these qualities deep within his musical DNA.  He clearly knows the work inside out, balancing passionate drama with the work’s intricate structures and fine detail.  His Sinfonia of London brought to it everything you could wish for: luxurious warmth, impassioned urgency and thrilling virtuosity.  The audience loved it.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello) with the Sinfonia of London conducted by John Wilson