{"id":597766,"date":"2026-08-27T16:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/597766\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T16:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:58:09","slug":"were-going-to-have-to-groove-the-cello-horn-and-sax-prodigies-jazzing-up-the-proms-classical-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/597766\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re going to have to groove!\u2019 The cello, horn and sax prodigies jazzing up the Proms | Classical music"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cellist, a horn player and a soprano saxophonist walk into the Royal Albert Hall \u2026 it could be the setup for an exceptionally nerdy joke, but instead it\u2019s a new triple concerto, with three soloists rather than the usual one, to be premiered on the final weekend of the Proms. The concerto \u2013 by Gwilym Simcock<\/a>, the Mercury-shortlisted composer, jazz pianist and horn player who in 2006 was the BBC\u2019s first New Generation<\/a> jazz artist \u2013 reunites the three finalists from the 2016 BBC young musician of the year<\/a> competition, hence the unusual lineup. \u201cThis is a unique combination of instruments,\u201d says the saxophonist Jess Gillam<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m fascinated by the colours that we\u2019re going to find. I hope we\u2019ll be able to make a sound where people will think: what instrument is that?\u201d<\/p>\n

BBC young musician has launched many careers, but 2016 was exceptional: all three finalists have become major names. \u201cIt\u2019s not like you win the competition and all these things fall from the sky, but it does give you a bit of public exposure,\u201d says the horn player Ben Goldscheider<\/a>, the 2016 brass section winner. \u201cThen it\u2019s up to you and the people around you what you make of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talking to a friend in the music business a few years later, Goldscheider realised that it wasn\u2019t only the finalists who had found the competition special that year. So he wrote to Gillam and to the cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason<\/a>, the overall winner in 2016: \u201cI said we should do something to celebrate, 10 years on, maybe a chamber music tour.\u201d That turned into a full-scale BBC co-commission and a Proms premiere, with performances scheduled in Birmingham, Antwerp and Sofia \u2013 and now here they are at the Royal Albert Hall, animatedly comparing notes on what Simcock has written for them.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s going to be a really interesting challenge\u2019 \u2026 Gillam, Goldscheider and Kanneh-Mason. Photograph: David Levene\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very celebratory piece,\u201d says Goldscheider. \u201cIt begins with this incredible, uplifting fanfare. There are a lot of jazz harmony influences. The second movement is extremely lyrical\u201d \u2013 it is dedicated to Simcock\u2019s father, who died while Simcock was writing the concerto \u2013 \u201cand then the third movement is a \u2018traditional\u2019 finale, full of fireworks. There\u2019s a nice big cadenza section where the three of us play together for ages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simcock will be at the piano, in among the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He has also included a solo improvisation for himself. Do the soloists have to improvise? No, says Gillam, but \u201cthere are these moments of jazz-influenced solos in a kind of trad sense, especially in the saxophone part\u201d. More widely, she says: \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to groove! I think, together with the orchestra, we\u2019re going to have so many conversations about where the beat actually is, because I imagine how we feel the beat is going to be very different to if we were playing anything typically classical.\u201d<\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t many triple concertos in the repertoire; the only one that springs to mind is Beethoven\u2019s<\/a>. It isn\u2019t often regarded as one of his greatest works. Is that fair? \u201cI strongly disagree \u2013 I love it!\u201d says Kanneh-Mason, who recorded it two years ago with two alumni of the 2004 BBC young musician competition, the violinist Nicola Benedetti <\/a>and the pianist Benjamin Grosvenor<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s usually put together with three characters who come together just for that project, so the complexity comes from three people plus the conductor plus the orchestra agreeing on something. But that doesn\u2019t mean that the music itself doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having three soloists who know each other \u2013 and have chemistry \u2013 is a different proposition, as is the triple-soloist format. \u201cThere are so many options for different kinds of conversations,\u201d says Kanneh-Mason, referring to how the soloists can interact with each other or with individual orchestral musicians. Gillam adds: \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a really interesting challenge: my articulation versus your articulation, a bow versus a reed. How are we going to find the sound that\u2019s in the middle? I think I\u2019m going to learn a lot about how to play the saxophone better. Not just by being inspired hearing you two, but by thinking about the way that the instruments operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apart from this concerto, all three soloists are expanding the repertoire in their own directions. In October, Kanneh-Mason will give the UK premiere of the cello concerto written for him by Edmund Finnis<\/a>. Goldscheider \u2013 who has already commissioned more than 70 horn pieces \u2013 has a site-specific project at the Hayward Gallery\u2019s Anish Kapoor exhibition<\/a>, plus four concertos in the pipeline from composers including Anna Clyne<\/a> and Cheryl Frances-Hoad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for Gillam, she will be back at the Albert Hall next year for a headline show, premiering five commissions. \u201cWhen I was a very little girl, I dreamed of playing here. And still, every time I walk into the building, I think there\u2019s something it does so beautifully: it gives you the sense that everyone can feel at ease, but also a sense of occasion. The Proms<\/a> is an amazing example of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concerto for Soprano Sax, Horn and Cello<\/a> is at the Proms in London on 6 September, then touring<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cellist, a horn player and a soprano saxophonist walk into the Royal Albert Hall \u2026 it could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-597766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}