French Connections with Jeneba Kanneh-Mason

We’re joined by pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason for a programme of French colour, jazz-inflected brilliance and soulful reinvention.

At the centre of the evening is Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major: a dazzling, quick-witted work shaped by the composer’s love of jazz, its glittering outer movements framing one of the most serene slow movements in the piano repertoire.

The programme opens in the luminous world of early 20th-century France, with Ravel’s elegant Le Tombeau de Couperin and Debussy’s charming Petite Suite. Alongside them, Debussy’s Clair de Lune and Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1 offer moments of stillness, intimacy and unmistakable atmosphere.

Threaded through the concert is a different but deeply connected sound world: the spirit, rhythm and emotional directness of American song. Music by Aretha Franklin and Margaret Bonds brings gospel, soul and blues into conversation with the French repertoire, revealing unexpected resonances of colour, freedom and expression.

This is a programme that moves between refinement and electricity, elegance and groove, from the shimmer of Debussy to the swing of Ravel, and from Spirit in the Dark to Troubled Water.