Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Saint-Saëns
Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907)
Peer Gynt
Prelude – Wedding March – Morning – Anitra’s Dance – Solveig’s Song
Henrik Ibsen never meant his 1867 “dramatic poem” Peer Gynt to appear on stage. It’s a drama for the mind’s ear, and they didn’t have many special effects in 19th century Norwegian theatre. What they did have was music. When, in 1874, Ibsen finally decided to try and put Peer Gynt on stage, he went straight to Edvard Grieg.
Peer Gynt was a real-life prankster and teller of tall tales, who lived in western Norway around 1800. Ibsen’s play is funny, action-packed and earthy. In Morning Peer wakes, robbed and deserted, in the Arabian desert. Why? A sinuous oriental dance for the seductress Anitra gives us some idea.
With Suite 2, we jump back to the start of the whole adventure. Peer’s sweetheart Ingrid has tired of waiting for him to commit, and she is to be married to another man. Outraged, Peer crashes the wedding, where one girl – Solveig – catches his eye. Things turn ugly, but Peer manages to grab Ingrid as he escapes. Many years and many adventures follow, until an older, sadder Peer returns to Norway. His one hope of redemption lies with Solveig, who has waited faithfully for him her whole life long. Even without Ibsen’s words, Solveig’s Song is poignant enough to touch the most jaded heart.
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921)
Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33
“I live in music like a fish lives in water”, said Camille Saint-Saëns, adding that he composed music “like a tree produces fruit”. But as with much of Saint-Saëns’s best music, his First Cello Concerto was more personal. It was a gift to a close friend, the Belgian cellist Auguste Tolbecque, and it was written late in 1872, one of a series of passionate, melancholy masterpieces that Saint-Saëns wrote for cello while grieving over the death of his beloved great-aunt earlier that year. It was premiered by Tolbecque in Paris in January 1873.
After a single brusque chord, the cello leaps straight in with a passionate melody that swirls from the top of the cello’s register to the bottom in a single flourish. The energy ebbs to a hush, and the orchestra begins the second movement, a dainty minuet for strings (possibly a tribute to Tolbecque’s love of baroque music). But the skies darken, and with a cry from the oboe, we’re back in the passionate world of the first movement. In a final bravura display, the cello finally swings the concerto round to an optimistic conclusion. “It is possible to be as much of a musician as Saint-Saëns” remarked Franz Liszt, “but it is impossible to be more of one”.
Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1956)
Symphony No. 3 in C, Op. 51
Allegro moderato – Andantino con moto, quasi allegretto – Moderato; Allegro ma non tanto
In 1904, Jean Sibelius began a process of remaking symphonic music from its raw elements. He strips away everything that doesn’t help him tell his story, and begins his Third Symphony with a grand fanfare but with a single, rudimentary line of music: cellos and basses gruffly playing a jaunty, almost throwaway tune.
But then… well, Sibelius knew that tiny seeds can contain vast forces. “All my energies are being devoted to the Third Symphony” he told the conductor Robert Kajanus, and when he conducted the premiere (in Helsinki, on 25 September 1907) listeners heard a symphony powered by an almost elemental energy. That’s the astonishing thing about that basic (but catchy) first tune. Almost immediately it starts to expand, to grow. Sibelius’s imagination pushes forward – whether letting woodwinds brighten the sky, or introducing a long, singing tune for the cellos.
In the second movement flutes tread lightly and wistfully over a lilting accompaniment. A mischievous scrap of melody launches the third movement, but we’ve already seen what Sibelius can grow from an innocent scrap of tune. Gradually the music broadens and Sibelius strides into his finale with a melody that’s as simple (and as potent) as the one that launched the symphony. The whole orchestra roars at full torrent as Sibelius builds his final, monumental, QED.
Dinis Sousa
Dinis Sousa is Music Director of the Royal Northern Sinfonia (RNS) and Founder and Artistic Directorof the award-winning Orquestra XXI. Winner of the 2023 Critics’ Circle Young Talent (Conductor)Award, he has led RNS programmes with Víkingur Ólafsson, Stephen Hough, Benjamin Grosvenor,Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Kristian Bezuidenhout, a Ravel anniversary celebration, Handel’s Messiah,and a special community performance of Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time.
In the 2025/26 season, Sousa led programmes with Paul Lewis, Imogen Cooper, Louise Alder and Maria Włoszczowska; Haydn’s Creation; a project juxtaposing Pierre Boulez and The Beatles; and a centenary celebration of György Kurtág.
As a guest conductor, recent and upcoming debuts include the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He has earned acclaim for performances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and for a complete Beethoven cycle with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras.
His opera work includes Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande for Bergen Opera and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia for Nevil Holt Opera. With Orquestra XXI, highlights include opening the Gulbenkian Foundation season and a celebrated tour of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.
Sheku Kanneh-Mason
Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s mission is to make music accessible to all, whether that’s performing for children in a school hall, at an underground club, or in the world’s leading concert venues.
In November 2025, Sheku gave the world première of Edmund Finnis’ Cello Concerto, which was written for him, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Roberto Gonzalez Monjas. He gives further performances of this work with the Dresden Philharmonic and Melbourne Symphony orchestras, and the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Antonio Pappano, in the 26/27 season. He made his much-anticipated debut in August 2026 with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Simone Young at the Sydney Opera House playing the Elgar Cello Concerto, for which he received outstanding reviews. Exactly 10 years since he won the BBC Young Musician, he returns to the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in September 2026 with his competition peers Jess Gillam and Benjamin Goldscheider where they perform a newly commissioned work by Gwilym Simcock, a Triple Concerto, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo. Further performances are scheduled in Sofia, Birmingham, and Antwerp.
Sheku continues to work with some of the most exciting orchestras and conductors; highlights of the 26/27 season include performances with Rotterdam Philharmonic and Bar Avni, Danish National Symphony with Leonidas Kavakos, Polish National Radio Symphony and Marin Alsop, Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck, Toronto Symphony and Gustavo Gimeno, and Sinfonia of London and John Wilson.
He returns to the Amsterdam Cello Biennale with the Residentie Orkest and Jonathan Bloxham in November 2026 and then in December 2026, performs Saint-Saëns’ first Cello Concerto with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Semyon Bychkov. As part of the same visit, Sheku and musicians of the orchestra play the first concert adaptation of his own delightful book for young children “Little Sheku and the Animal Orchestra”. In May 2027, Sheku embarks upon a European and North American duo tour with celebrated pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, with whom he recorded his 2024 album of the Beethoven Triple Concerto.
In 2027 Sheku returns to Antigua, where he has family connections, as an ambassador for the Antigua and Barbuda Youth Symphony Orchestra and before then is honoured to perform for the Commonwealth Heads of Government gala evening in November 2026, also in Antigua.
A Decca Classics recording artist, Sheku released Shostakovich & Britten in May 2025, featuring Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2, performed with John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London, alongside the cello sonatas of Shostakovich and Britten, which he recorded with Isata Kanneh-Mason. September 2025 sawthe release of the second Kanneh-Mason family album, River of Music, also on Decca Classics. Sheku’s 2022 album, Song, showcased his innately lyrical playing in a wide range of arrangements and collaborations, and his 2020 album Elgar reached No. 8 in the overall Official UK Album Chart, making him the first ever cellist to reach the UK Top 10. Sheet music collections of his performance repertoire along with his own arrangements and compositions are published by Faber.He will release his ninth album on Decca Classics later in 2026.
Sheku is a graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Hannah Roberts and in May2022 he was appointed as the Academy’s first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring. In 2024 he accepted the role as patron of UK Music Masters and remains an ambassador for both Breakthrough T1D and Future Talent. Sheku was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List. After winning the BBC Young Musician competition in 2016, Sheku’s performance at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle in 2018 was watched by two billion people worldwide. He is the author of two books, both published by Penguin Random House in 2025, a memoir entitled “The Power of Music” and the aforementioned “Little Sheku and the Animal Orchestra”. He plays a Matteo Goffriller cello from 1700 which is on indefinite loan to him
Sheku Kanneh-Mason appears by arrangement with Enticott Music Management.
Sheku Kanneh-Mason records exclusively for Decca Classics.
Royal Northern Sinfonia
Internationally renowned, calling Gateshead home.
37 musicians at the top of their game. Electrifying music, old and new. All the talent, determination, and creativity of the North East on a worldwide stage. From their home at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, Royal Northern Sinfonia share the joy and wonder of orchestral music with thousands of people across the North of England – and beyond – every year.
From symphonies to string quartets, film soundtracks to choral masses, and original performances with awesome artists from Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Víkingur Ólafsson to Sam Fender and Self Esteem, the orchestra’s members have got one of the most varied jobs there is. They’re always looking for fresh new sounds from up-and-coming composers, inviting local communities to share a stage, and doing everything they can to inspire and prepare the musicians of tomorrow to one day take their place.
They’re also working hard to smash the barriers that can stop brilliant people getting into classical music. They’ve teamed up with national partners to support women conductors to develop their careers, to help global majority musicians get vital experience in the orchestra world, and to celebrate disabled and non-disabled musicians breaking new ground together in inclusive ensemble RNS Moves. And they bring new musical opportunities to the region, headlining the first-ever BBC Proms weekend outside London.
Because they whole-heartedly believe orchestral music is for anyone – big cities and rural villages, tiny babies and life-long listeners, die-hard fans and curious minds – they travel far and wide to make sure there’s top-notch classical music on offer in as many places as possible. You’ll find them in churches, castles, and community venues across the North, as well as leading the charge in Carlisle, Kendal, Middlesbrough, and Sunderland.
With 65 years of success to build on, they’ve signed a dynamic artistic leadership – Music Director Dinis Sousa, Artistic Partner Maria Włoszczowska, Principal Guest Conductor Nil Venditti and Associate Conductor Ellie Slorach – to lead the way into a bold, bright future.
Wherever the orchestra play and whoever they share a stage with, every performance is a chance to see, hear and feel the music.
