London Orchestra Presents An Evening Of Music Inspired By Card Games

The Academy of St Mary-le-Bow invites you to pull up a seat at its poker table for an evening of spectacular music inspired by card games, including Stravinsky's Jeu de Cartes, Barber's 'A Hand of Bridge', and excerpts from Prokofiev's 'The Gambler', alongside music by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky.

Established in 2016, the Academy of St Mary-le-Bow has developed a reputation as one of London's leading amateur orchestras. The ensemble attracts the very best of the city's non-professional musicians, who are drawn to the Academy for its inventive approach to orchestral concert production, spearheaded by Musical Director Alex Fryer. This event will certainly be no exception: not only will the orchestra be joined by five exceptional soloists, under the baton of returning guest conductor Maxime Tortelier, but the evening will be brought to life with a semi-staged opera, card games for the audience and the orchestra's very own "Poker Face" cocktail served at the bar.

The thrilling mix of chance and skill defining any card game has attracted history's most daring fictional and non-fictional characters. Many a great story hinges on a high-stakes game of cards, including that of the servant boy who wins big in Prokofiev's opera 'The Gambler', and the secret winning formula that comes at too high a price in Tchaikovsky's 'The Queen of Spades'. A friendly game of bridge is the background to Barber's hilarious mini opera 'A Hand of Bridge', featuring two couples who regularly play cards together. On this night, however, their minds are all elsewhere, from hat shopping to thinking about their lovers. The orchestra will be performing music from all of these operas, including Barber's work in full, with four incredible soloists: Eleanor Penfold, Rebekah Jones, Hugo Hymas and Thomas Nießer.

The orchestra welcome back pianist Roelof Temmingh, who will be performing Rachmaninoff's well loved Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Not only was Paganini one of the greatests violin virtuosi ever to have lived, but he was also by all accounts a pretty terrible card player, famously losing his house and violin to his gambling habit. This wonderful work will complete the programme alongside Stravinsky's colourful neoclassical ballet Jeu de Cartes or "Game of Cards", the plot of which focuses on a tricksy joker who is convinced that he is invincible.