the music

The programme for this concert is made up of four great piano pieces. 

The first is Beethoven’s ‘Sonata No. 6 in F Major’. It’s a great concert opener, and is full of earworms. It’s unusually short for this kind of piece at around twelve minutes, and it ends with a really exciting bit of what’s called ‘counterpoint’. Counterpoint is the word used to describe interweaving different bits of melody at the same time. It’s often something you hear at the end of pieces, and can be really exciting. Listen out for this section near the end where the tune gets passed from the left hand to the right hand.

Next up, Mendelssohn’s ‘Variations sérieuses’, which is such a great piece it’s hard to do it justice here. It starts with a simple, heartbreakingly beautiful tune, and then Mendelssohn elaborates it in 17 different ‘variations’. Here’s the original tune at the beginning, but skip forward to 11:22 for a flavour of how different and thrilling the variations become.

Then there’s Schumann’s hauntingly beautiful ‘Ghost Variations’. By the time he wrote this piece, Schumann was suffering aural hallucinations, and believed angels had dictated the theme to him. A good way to get the most out of the ‘variations’ form is to see if you can recognise the theme in each new variation, despite the different ways it might be played. Each variation is there to add a different emotional colour to the original tune.

The programme finishes up with Schubert’s C major ‘Wanderer Fantasy’. There’s so much to love about this - Schubert’s music is often personal and understated, but this is a grand show-off concert piece. We’re sure it’s going to be a really uplifting way to end this concert.  

the performer

Mishka Rushdie Momen is a first-class international piano soloist. She’s been hailed by many of the great pianists, including Sir András Schiff as being one of the top pianists of her generation and has won prizes at some of the most prestigious piano competitions. It’s pretty rare to hear someone of this level in such an intimate venue. 

the venue

The Fidelio Orchestra Cafe is an unusually intimate way to experience this kind of music, but… it looks expensive. Normal tickets cost between 80 and 100 quid so we wouldn’t usually even touch this kind of thing.

But we’re here to help.

We’ve done some digging, and discovered that if you are under-30, you can book a table where each person only pays £10, a fairly sizeable 90% off. They’ve raised money specially.

All you have to do is email info@fideliorchestra.art and say that you want to book a table for the Under-30s scheme. You can book table sizes of 2-4.

When you find out that the ticket price includes a fantastic three course meal and a drink on arrival, you might find yourself wondering whether it could possibly be real. We tried it. It is.