New appointment for London Soloists Ensemble at St. John’s Smith Square….

The London Soloists Ensemble have been appointed “associate ensemble” at St. John’s Smith Square and will give an annual three concert series starting in June. The series includes works by Brahms (the three piano quartets) and Mozart (two piano quartets and the “Kegelstatt”  trio for clarinet, viola and piano. Each programme will also include a rare opportunity to hear some British works  from the early twentieth century written by composers who (at least in their early works) were clearly writing under the spell of the great Brahms – Vaughan Williams, Stanford and Ireland. 

“Grand Piano”

A new feature film “Grand Piano” is due out later this year. It features Elijah Wood as a concert pianist and he is seen playing the piano for much of the film. John Lenehan is the real pianist playing a concerto written for the film by Victor Reyes as a tense psychological thriller unfolds…..

King’s Place – April 11th

On the first night of Tasmin Little’s mini festival at King’s Place London, John Joined Tasmin to perform Sonatas by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and the horn trio by Brahms in which they were joined by BBCSO principal Nicholas Korth. John also played a Schubert Impromptu. A memorable evening!

Update – March

March was an “arranging” month for John. Although there were  concerts with Emma Johnson in Leeds and Tunbridge Wells, most of John’s time was spent arranging and orchestrating for Joseph Calleja’s next album “Romantic Tenor”, Alisa Weilerstein’s recording with the Czech Philharmonic of music by Dvorak and an encore disc featuring Nicola Benedetti.

Crazy February

A busy month for John saw him performing four recitals with Emma Johnson which included Brahms Sonatas, Prokofiev Sonata (soon to be recorded) and their own arrangements of “Scenes from West Side Story” and Gershwin melodies. in fact John’s work as arranger has been heard far and wide recently with Ksenija Siderova performing Piazzolla in Latvia and Norway, Nicola Benedetti performing Gardel in USA (see here for WQXR live streaming event from New York – it’s the last piece) and Maksim performing in China and Taiwan. His latest album “The Movies” is now available with arrangements by John Lenehan of “The Godfather”, “Mission Impossible” and the theme from “Spartacus”

John is currently working on three arrangements for Alisa Weilerstein.

John also gave a piano recital for the Morpeth Music club in February, playing the following programme:

Mendelssohn Andante and Rondo

Sterndale Bennett Sonata in F minor

Schumann Etudes Symphoniques op.13

Mendelssohn Concerto in G minor (trans. Sydney Smith)

This unusual programme highlighted the marvellous sonata by Sterndale Bennett and his relationships with Mendelssohn (the sonata was dedicated to him) and Schumann (whose op. 13 was dedicated to Sterndale Bennett.

The London Soloists Ensemble was also busy in February, giving two performances of Messiaen’s “Quartet for the end of Time”

A typically varied Lenehan month!

Here is Maksim performing “The Godfather” as arranged for him by John Lenehan.

New CD recording……

John Lenehan starts 2013 with a new recording for Naxos. The sessions will take place in the first week of January at the Menuhin Hall.With Julian Lloyd Webber and his wife Jiaxin Cheng. The disc is provisionally called “A Tale of Two Cellos” and the repertoire is a typically eclectic JLW mix – from Monteverdi to Arvo Part!     

_{(photo credit: Ian Cameron)}

Later in January John will join Tasmin for a recital at Abbotsholme School. Details below -

Thursday January 17th at 8.00pm

Tasmin Little violin and John Lenehan piano

Brahms Scherzo (FAE sonata}
Elgar Violin Sonata
Beethoven Sonata in A op.47

Tickets from Abbotsholme Arts Society BOX-OFFICE 01543 263304
£20 for adults, £5 for under 25s.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,800 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.