Thomas Kelly _piano

As Royal College of Music 2023/24 Benjamin Britten Piano Fellow, Thomas Kelly is no stranger to London’s stages, having performed the dazzling piano cadenzas in the RCM’s packed performance of Messiaen’s Turangalîla at the Royal Festival Hall last summer.

For this programme, Thomas Kelly performs a solo recital of three extraordinary works, two of them arranged by Busoni – famed for his fiendishly challenging and richly textured transcriptions. Based on Lutheran chorales, Brahms’ 11 Chorale Preludes were the last composition he ever completed. The tenth is a piece of brooding profundity, reflecting Brahms’ grief for the recent loss of his friend, Clara Schumann – who was also the dedicatee of Robert Schumann’s heartfelt First Piano Sonata, while Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue encompasses grandeur and devout meditation.