Classical Preview: Grosvenor following in famous footsteps

Looking much younger than his 18 years, Benjamin Grosvenor became the youngest soloist to open a London Prom season at the Royal Albert Hall, returning later in the series as the soloist with the National Youth Orchestra. Grosvenor has received rave reviews from national newspapers and websites, and he fully justifies the praise afforded to him.

Without the same media hype, he is to open a new year of Ilkley Concert Club concerts, a dedicated subscription audience that in the club’s 65-year history has attracted to the King’s Hall the world’s most famous artists.

Seven years ago he came into our homes as the quite remarkable winner of the keyboard final in the televised BBC Young Musician of the Year.

Now a young mature artist he has chosen an exacting programme of music by Bach, Beethoven and Albeniz, with the Liszt Bicentenary year marked by two virtuoso showpieces (October 5).

Seven further club concerts include the cellist, Guy Johnston, BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2000, who is joined by the former Leeds Piano Competition prizewinner, Leon McCawley, in works by Barber, Bach and Chopin (January 11).

The UK’s first prize winners in Japan’s top-ranking Osaka Chamber Music Competition, the Doric String Quartet, play Haydn, Korngold and Schubert (February 15); Baroque music from the Brook Street Band (April 4), the season ending with the London Concertante (May 9).

Benjamin Grosvenor, Kings Hall, Ilkley, October 5, 8pm. 01943 609744. www.bradford-theatres.co.uk/kings-hall.