BMW CLASSICS
Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra with cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason perform live in Trafalgar Square on Saturday June 11, 2022 at 5.00pm. This free summer concert highlights the continued partnership between BMW and the London Symphony Orchestra, which for the last eleven years has brought superlative live music to audiences in one of the world’s most iconic public spaces.
The 2022 BMW CLASSICS concert program opens with George Gershwin’s evocative sunny ‘Cuban Overture’. For the central section of the concert, in contrasting mood, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason marks his debut live performance with the LSO, playing two sublime masterpieces for cello and orchestra, Bruch’s ‘Kol Nidrei’ and Bloch’s ‘Prayer from Jewish Life’. This is followed by the world premiere of ‘FAIYA!’ a specially commissioned work by Ayanna Witter-Johnson. This dance inspired piece written for a mixed-ability orchestra brings together LSO musicians with 55 young musicians from east London as part of the LSO On Track partnership, and 18 students from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. For the final work the upbeat tempo returns with a second Gershwin classic, ‘An American in Paris’.