We’re thrilled to welcome Nottingham pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason for her first concerto performance here with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

She’s one of the UK’s fastest rising classical stars, notching up several TV and radio appearances, from the BAFTAs to the BBC Proms, and her 2019 debut album reached No. 1 in the UK Classical charts. An outgoing and engaging artist, she’s perfectly suited to Ernst von Dohnányi’s ingenious set of eleven variations on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, which deftly pokes fun at a host of familiar composers.

The rest of the programme brings a symphonic favourite and a fairy tale ballet. Bartók’s pantomime, The Wooden Prince, emerged from his painstaking project to record Hungary’s folk music, and deploys its characteristic rhythms and harmonies in the captivating story of a Prince who uses a wooden replica of himself to woo a flirtatious princess. And whilst Dvořák’s powerful Ninth Symphony evokes the expansive landscapes and native musical traditions of his adopted home in America, it also draws on his Bohemian roots, creating a compelling dialogue between old and new worlds that’s captivated audiences ever since its 1893 New York premiere.