Black legacies explored by Chineke! at the Royal Festival Hall

By Mark Pullinger, 20 October 2020

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Reviewed at Royal Festival Hall, London on 19 October 2020

Coleridge-Taylor, African Suite

Wilson, Remnants (World premiere)

Price, Piano Concerto in One Movement

Beethoven, Symphony no. 5 in C minor, Op.67

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, Piano

Yomi Sode, Poet

Chineke! Orchestra

Kevin John Edusei, Conductor

Collaboration, innovation and defiance: Chineke! at the BBC Proms

Eleanor Knight, 5th September

Jonathon Heyward steps in to conduct Chineke! in two UK premieres and Shostakovich's rip-roaring Tenth Symphony.

****1

Chineke! gives world premiere of Joan Armatrading's First Symphony

Alexander Hall, 24th November

Chineke! Orchestra likes to do things differently and this concert, conducted by Andrew Grams, pairs symphonies by Tchaikovsky and the singer-songwriter-guitarist Armatrading.

***11

A mixed bag of treats from Chineke! at the BBC Proms

Alexander Hall, 1st September

No hard hitters or big beasts in this colourful potpourri from the remarkable Chineke! Orchestra, conducted by Anthony Parnther, but a chance to savour both the unknown and the familiar.

****1

Bold, brash and Bacchic: Chineke! Orchestra undimmed as ever

Alexander Hall, 25th February

The Chineke! Orchestra always aims at mixing the old and familiar (Beethoven, Ravel) with lesser-known corners of the repertory (Coleridge-Taylor, Walker). Anthony Parnther conducts with Kenneth Thompkins as soloist.

***11

Kalena Bovell conducts Chineke! in inspired performance of Hailstork

Timothy Robson, 14th December

The excellent program opened with Coleridge Taylor's Ballade and also included favorites by Haydn and Dvořák.

***11

If music be the food of love, play on Chineke!

Alexander Hall, 23rd February

Music is the ultimate universal language, here reflected in the latest Chineke! programme offering playing of richness and vitality.

****1

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.