‘Few would venture to Chelsea, unarmed and unattended,’ wrote Charles Dickens in 1841. What would Dickens say if he saw Chelsea in 2024? This week, we are in the heart of Chelsea, celebrating the vibrant and innovative cultural life of Cadogan Hall, where we have had the pleasure of being the Resident Orchestra for 20 years. From our first concert at the Hall for its opening in June 2004, a sell-out performance with Kiri Te Kanawa, the partnership has gone from strength to strength, creating magical moments with world-class artists for audiences from near and far.
This beautiful hall was the typically ambitious brainchild of the late Lord Cadogan, who sadly passed away around this time last year. A huge supporter of the arts, he spoke of the ‘absolute lunacy’ of buying and refurbishing a listed, deconsecrated church. Still, he never regretted his decision, and it is easy to see why. The building is ideally suited to its new life as an intimate concert hall and has proved to be a home from home for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
This week, in celebration of this milestone, we will show the Hall at its very best with the Grammy Award-winning conductor Cristian Măcelaru taking to the stage on Saturday to conduct violin sensation Bomsori Kim in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, a favourite for our audiences over the years here at Cadogan Hall. On Thursday, we are joined by Dame Harriet Walter and Adjoa Andoh, who will show us how well different art forms can be brought together in this intimate space in a concert which pairs music and words written in and about Chelsea.
And to open the week, actor Tama Matheson has created a witty (and significantly reduced) version of Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, which you can hear alongside the RPO’s performance of Grieg’s iconic incidental music. Adam Hickox will also conduct Lise de la Salle’s performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4, a piece you may know well, and the Overture to Nielsen’s Maskarade, where love and mistaken identity unfold amongst the glitz and glam of the ballroom.
We were deeply saddened earlier this year by the death of Sir Andrew Davis, who would have conducted our performance on Wednesday. A hugely respected musician and a very kind and genuine human being, we will sorely miss collaborating with him and wish to take the opportunity to dedicate the performance on 26 June to his memory.
Finally, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Cadogan Hall would like to say a heartfelt thank you to you, our audience, for joining us not just for this week’s series of special performances but also so faithfully for hundreds of enchanting performances over the last twenty years. Our brand new 2024–25 Season is now on sale, featuring 15 concerts filled with favourite melodies, contemporary classics, new discoveries and sonic surprises – we can’t wait to share it with you.