Persuade Wendi l Wilson

Following their second BBC Music Magazine Award (for Respighi’s Roman Trilogy) and universal praise for their first concert (at the BBC Proms in 2021), Sinfonia of London and John Wilson turn to the orchestral works of Ravel for this their sixth studio album. Not only an outstanding pianist and one of France’s greatest composers, Maurice Ravel is acclaimed as one of the greatest orchestrators of all time. His unique ability to conjure the widest possible range of colours and textures from the orchestral palette is amply demonstrated on this album. The programme opens with La Valse, conceived as a snapshot of 1850s Vienna. The continuous sequence of waltzes becomes increasingly insistent until the sound is almost utterly overwhelming. Other ballets also feature – Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) and the notorious Boléro, both recorded here for the first time in their complete original versions. Ravel’s orchestrations of his own piano works complete the programme: Valses nobles et sentimentales, Pavane pour une infante défunte, and Alborada del gracioso, which demonstrates both Ravel’s fascination with Spanish sounds and culture and the sheer virtuosity of orchestral playing of Sinfonia of London.

Ransom Wilson has long been recognized internationally as one of the greatest flutists of his generation. After graduation from the Juilliard School in 1973, he spent a year in Paris as a private student of Jean-Pierre Rampal. As flute soloist, he has appeared in concert with some of the greatest orchestras and artists of our time, including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony, Frederica von Stade, Jessye Norman, Thomas Hampson, Susan Graham, Dolora Zajick, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Hilary Hahn, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Sir James Galway, and many others. François Dumontis a prize winner of the most prestigious international competitions: the Queen Elisabeth Competition (Brussels), the Chopin Competition (Warsaw), the Cleveland International Competition in the United States and the Clara Haskil Competition in Switzerland.

At the end of March 2018, Steven Wilson played a sell-out three night residency at one of the world’s most iconic venues: London’s Royal Albert Hall. The three Albert Hall shows saw Steven and his virtuoso band present the songs from To The Bone and many more from a deep dive into his extensive back catalogue as part of visually and sonically immersive experience. There, brain-twisting visuals met expansive 4D sound, making this most traditional of English venues feel like it was hosting a very different kind of Prom – more communion than concert. It wasn’t surprising that the Sun described the gig as “one of the best shows of the year – and it’s only March”.