Sheku Kanneh-Mason is best known for his performance at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018, which was watched by nearly 2 billion people. Two years earlier, he became the only black musician to win the BBC Young Musician Award. Hear him in the melodious Saint-Saens First Cello Concerto, which shows off both the dramatic and lyrical characteristics of the instrument, and features a charming minuet in the second movement. One Saint-Saens biographer speculated that the composer's sudden interest in the instrument – a cello sonata immediately preceded this concerto - stemmed from mourning a recently departed great-aunt. "His feeling for the cello, with its deep, dark tone and capacity for both dignified and impassioned utterance, was now rekindled by the melancholy that set in after his bereavement." Perhaps the minuet section was meant to convey his great-aunt's connection to the music of an earlier time.

Please note these are working rehearsals and pieces may not be played fully, piece order may change, and soloists may not sing or play as fully as in performance. Also note the conductor is not mic'ed to allow the musicians to work together more freely.