Hiro Takenouchi & Sinfonia Cymru

Our chamber music Sunday Concerts started over 130 years ago and are the longest-running of their kind in Europe. This week, Japanese pianist Hiro Takenouchi is joined by members of Sinfonia Cymru.

Japanese pianist Hiro Takenouchi will be joined by members of Sinfonia Cymru in an evening of piano sextets by Sterndale Bennett and Mendelssohn.

Hiro Takenouchi (piano)
Kana Kawashima (violin)
Oliver Cave (violin/viola)
Francesca Gilbert (viola)
George Hoult (cello)
Martin Lüdenbach (double bass)

Sterndale Bennett Sextet in F sharp minor Op. 8
Mendelssohn Sextet in D Op. 110

Heralded by The Times as “just the sort of champion the newest of new music needs”, while being praised as “impeccable in his pianism and unfailing in his idiomatic grasp” by Gramophone, Hiro Takenouchi’s curiosity and a natural penchant for integrity makes his playing and vast repertoire unique amongst his generation of pianists: his love for the music of classical masters - particularly Haydn, Beethoven and Chopin - sits side by side with his passion for the music of Medtner, lesser-known British composers such as Sterndale Bennett and Parry, and the contemporary repertoire.

Sinfonia Cymru is a young and innovative chamber orchestra from Wales. The orchestra is made up of professional musicians in the early stages of their careers and is the first and only orchestra of its kind to be revenue-funded by the Arts Council of Wales.

Founded in 1996 by Principal Conductor Gareth Jones and typified by excellence, flexibility and innovation, Sinfonia Cymru delivers a hugely diverse programme of activities each year. The orchestra has performed in major concert halls across the UK, including the Royal Albert Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Birmingham Symphony Hall, and gives regular performances in Wales in key venues including the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Wales Millennium Centre, Theatr Clwyd, The Riverfront and The Hafren. In recent years, Sinfonia Cymru has performe