London Mozart Players
Among London's many small orchestral ensembles, the London Mozart Players are perhaps the oldest and certainly among the most prestigious. The group specializes not only in the music of Mozart but also in other works of the Classical period, featuring small forces similar to those that would have played the music in its own time, although modern rather than historical instruments are used.
The London Mozart Players were formed in 1949 by conductor and string player Harry Blech, who gathered musicians from the National Gallery Concerts he had mounted in the empty museum during World War II. Blech remained the conductor until 1984. At the time, it was Britain's only orchestra specializing in Classical-period music. The orchestra was popular from the beginning, partly because Blech insisted on touring smaller venues in rural Britain where top-notch orchestral playing was hard to find in the difficult postwar years. In London itself, the group appeared annually for many years at the Royal Festival Hall. An early digital recording appeared on the Chandos label in 1983 and featured symphonies by Muzio Clementi.
The London Mozart Players have served since the late '80s as the official resident ensemble of the Borough of Croydon, and in 2016, it took up residence at the borough's Fairfield Halls. Blech was succeeded in 1984 by Jane Glover, Matthias Bamert in 1992, Andrew Parrott in 2000, Gérard Korsten in 2010, and Howard Shelley in 2014. The orchestra enjoys noble patronage from the Earl of Wessex but, uniquely among British professional orchestras, delegates both financial and artistic leadership to the players themselves. Britain-wide tours have been followed by worldwide ones, including a tour in 2018 that included stops in Dubai and Hong Kong. The orchestra has long attracted prestigious soloists, from flutist James Galway in his heyday to Nicola Benedetti, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, and Thomas Trotter in the 2010s.
The London Mozart Players have recorded prolifically, mostly for Chandos, often committing to disc the music of rarely heard composers such as Leopold Kozeluch and Adalbert Gyrowetz. The group sometimes ventures beyond the Classical and early Romantic periods, joining the Colla Voce Singers for a recording of Roxanna Panufnik's Love Abide on the Signum Classics label in 2019. In 2021, the London Mozart Players joined the Choir of Royal Holloway, University of London, for a recording on Hyperion of the oratorio As We Are Changed by Carson Cooman and Euan Tait. By 2023, when the orchestra returned to Chandos for the world premiere recording of Hubert Parry's Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, its recording catalog comprised well over 50 items.
© James Manheim /TiVo
Similar artists
-
Parry: Scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, Blest Pair of Sirens
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by Chandos on 8 Sep 2023
Gramophone: Recording of the Month24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Fanny Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn: Choral Works
Crouch End Festival Chorus, London Mozart Players, David Temple
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by Chandos on 12 Jan 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Boccherini: Symphonies Nos. 3, 8 & 21
London Mozart Players, Matthias Bamert
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 1 Jun 2010
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Hummel: Mandolin Concerto
Howard Shelley, London Mozart Players, Alison Stephens, Urban Agnas
Chamber Music - Released by Chandos on 1 Jun 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wranitzky: Symphonies
London Mozart Players, Matthias Bamert
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 1 Jan 2002
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Herschel: Symphonies
Matthias Bamert, London Mozart Players
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 17 Mar 2003
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Hummel: Piano Concertos
Howard Shelley, London Mozart Players
Concertos - Released by Chandos on 1 Feb 2001
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hoffmeister: Symphonies
London Mozart Players, Matthias Bamert
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 1 Nov 2005
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Alice Mary Smith: Symphonies
Howard Shelley, London Mozart Players, Angela Malsbury
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 1 Feb 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hummel: Potpourri, Adagio and Rondo alla Polacca, Variations & Violin Concerto in G Major
Howard Shelley, London Mozart Players, James Ehnes
Chamber Music - Released by Chandos on 1 Aug 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wesley: Symphonies
Matthias Bamert, London Mozart Players
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 1 May 2000
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hummel: Ballet Suites & Twelve Waltzes and Coda
London Mozart Players, Howard Shelley
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 1 Apr 2007
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concertos, Vol. 6
London Mozart Players, Howard Shelley
Classical - Released by Chandos on 1 Oct 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Salieri: Symphonies & Overtures
Matthias Bamert, London Mozart Players
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 1 Jan 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Leopold Mozart: Symphonies
London Mozart Players, Matthias Bamert
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 1 Nov 2008
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart
Helena Macherel, Tjasha Gafner, London Mozart Players
Concertos - Released by Claves Records on 23 Feb 2024
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Hummel: Concertos
Howard Shelley, London Mozart Players
Concertos - Released by Chandos on 1 Sep 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Richter: Sinfonias and Sinfonies
London Mozart Players, Matthias Bamert
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 1 Mar 2007
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Benda: Piano Concertos (Hyperion Classical Piano Concerto 8)
Howard Shelley, London Mozart Players
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Oct 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Marsh: Symphonies
London Mozart Players, Matthias Bamert
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on 1 Feb 2008
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Cramer: Piano Concertos Nos. 1, 3 & 6 (Hyperion Classical Piano Concerto 7)
Howard Shelley, London Mozart Players
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 25 Sep 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo