Makoto Ozone plays Gershwin

A clarinet soars upwards – and immediately, you can picture the skyscrapers of jazz-age Manhattan. There’s nothing quite like Rhapsody in Blue, and few living pianists play Gershwin with more flair than our soloist today, Japanese jazz legend Makoto Ozone. And with RPO Conductor-in-Residence Kevin John Edusei conducting, there are endless pictures to be painted and stories to be told. High in the mountains of Transylvania, György Ligeti hears a shepherd blow his horn, and gypsy fiddles flash around the campfire. And far from his Hungarian homeland, composed in the USA, Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra sets out to put a great orchestra through its paces and ends up by punching the air with glee. This is music that loves life – and believe us, you can feel it.

‘...unfailingly inventive and entertaining.’ The Scotsman on Makoto Ozone, May 2024