Mozart & Mischief

Shiyeon Sung opens a musical toybox. For Respighi’s ballet about magical dolls that come to life, he unearthed some piano pieces which Rossini had written for his own amusement and clothed them in sparkling orchestration.

Mozart’s concerto is a blend of the playful and the reflective, for which Benjamin Grosvenor is the perfect musician. Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony is, on face value, lively clowning and frivolity, but there are hints of irony, suggesting hidden depths.