Howard Shelley & London Mozart Players
Farrington Hall, Shaftesbury
Saturday 31 October • 5PM
Mozart: Sonata for Violin & Piano K304
Schumann: Piano Quintet
Dvorak: Piano Quintet
HOWARD SHELLEY OBE • Conductor/Piano
RUTH ROGERS • Violin
ANTONIA KESSEL • Violin
JUDITH BUSBRIDGE • Viola
KATE GOULD • Cello
PROGRAMME NOTES
Composed in 1778, Mozart’s Violin Sonata in E minor, K.304, is one of his most emotionally intense violin sonatas. Written during a difficult period in Mozart’s life, the music has a strikingly serious and melancholy character. The first movement is restless and dramatic, while the second movement, a Minuet and Trio, brings moments of tenderness and contrast. The sonata is notable for its expressive depth and the equal partnership between violin and piano.
Composed in 1842, Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44 is a landmark of Romantic chamber music and helped establish the piano quintet as a major concert genre. Written during an especially productive creative period, the work combines passionate expression with structural brilliance. Schumann’s rich interplay between piano and strings creates moments of intimacy, drama and triumph, culminating in an energetic finale that brings themes together with remarkable vitality and optimism.
Composed in 1887, Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81 is one of his most celebrated chamber works, combining lyrical warmth with vibrant rhythmic energy. The piece reflects the composer’s deep connection to Czech folk traditions while maintaining the elegance and structure of classical chamber music. From the expressive opening movement to the lively dance-inspired passages and radiant finale, the quintet showcases rich dialogue between piano and strings and captures both intimacy and exuberance.
PERFORMERS
HOWARD SHELLEY OBE • Conductor/Piano
As pianist, conductor and recording artist, Howard Shelley has enjoyed a distinguished career since his highly acclaimed London debut in 1971, performing worldwide at major venues and with renowned orchestras. Most of his current work is in the combined role of conductor and soloist. This is reflected in a discography that now exceeds 180 albums and the works of over eighty composers. His recordings of Mozart and his contemporaries have won exceptional praise. Howard Shelley has conducted all the major London orchestras and his long association with the London Mozart Players has been recognized by the title of Conductor Laureate. He has also been Principal Conductor of Sweden’s Uppsala Chamber Orchestra and has had particularly close relationships with orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North, Sinfonia Varsovia, Camerata Salzburg, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Västerås Sinfonietta, Sinfonieorchester St Gallen, and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in Australia with whom he has recorded many albums for Hyperion.
In 1994 an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Music was conferred on him, and in 2009 he was awarded an OBE for services to classical music.
ANTONIA KESEL • Violin
Antonia Kesel graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with a First Class honours degree in 2015 having studied with International Soloist, Jack Liebeck for 4 years. Since her graduation, she has been a chamber music fellow at the Royal Academy of Music and has won many prizes as a chamber musician, including the St Martin-in-the Fields chamber music competition and the Malta International Music Competition. Antonia enjoys working in the West End as a member of the band at Phantom of the Opera as well as being the principal second violin of the London Mozart Players. She also works with orchestras such as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Royal Opera House and Britten Sinfonia. Antonia plays on a Francois Fent violin from Paris, circa 1780.
JUDITH BUSBRIDGE • Viola
Judith Busbridge graduated in Music from Birmingham University and completed her viola studies with Thomas Riebl in Salzburg, where she was Solo violist in the Camerata Academica under the directorship of Sándor Végh, a position she held for five years.
In September 2013 Judith joined the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as one of their Principal violas. She has a busy schedule playing for the Opera season as well as for the Royal Ballet. As a former member of two multi-award-winning chamber music ensembles; the Dante String Quartet and Ensemble 360, Judith has performed at major concert halls and festivals throughout the UK and Europe, regularly broadcasting on BBC Radio 3 and winning the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music both in 2007 and 2013. Her varied freelance career includes being Principal viola in the London Mozart Players as well as playing guest principal viola with the English Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields. She is also Solo viola in John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, which performs a repertoire of nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on period instruments.
KATE GOULD • Cello
Kate Gould has devoted most of her career to chamber music as a member of the celebrated Leopold String Trio from 1991 to 2012 and London Bridge Trio from 2002 to 2020. As BBC New Generations Artists and ECHO Rising Stars, the Leopolds also won awards from the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust for exceptional performances, recordings and projects. The trio performed at major concert halls worldwide and played at all the UK festivals. Kate curated a ’Leopolds and Friends’ style series at Wigmore Hall which ran from 2005-2008 including their recording partners for Hyperion Records, pianists Marc-André Hamelin and Paul Lewis.
She is artistic director of the Winchester Chamber Music Festival, celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2027, and the Ironstone Chamber Music Festival in north Oxfordshire. Kate is often invited to other festivals worldwide, including Corbridge and Peasmarsh in 2026, which included a performance of Vivaldi’s Double Cello Concerto with the Britten Sinfonia. She has been member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe since 2000 and is in frequent demand as guest-principal cellist of British orchestras such as London Mozart Players, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Orchestre Romantique et Révolutionnaire, English Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC symphony orchestras.