On Friday the 12th of July, a group of 21 BBCM members, including 3 and 4 year-olds, met at the Barbican for the Mostly Mozart Concert.

The concert included a brilliant performance of Haydn's Cello Concerto in D major by Jian Wang. We sat in the front row and could hear him breathe intensely as he played with his eyes closed. So as to feel the music? As Agnes noted, Jian Wang made music of an extremely difficult piece. We met Jian Wang backstage and he kindly autographed programs. This great cellist has inspired me to learn to play the cello.

My sister Stephanie (age 4) also enjoyed the lively violin performances and Ruth Ziesak's singing Mozart arias.

Paul Christensen, age 7

Postscript by Agnes Kory:

Haydn's Cello Concerto in D is notoriously difficult technically and therefore musically: it is hard to create beautiful music while performing complicated gymnastics on the fingerboard. But cellist Jian Wang managed to do just that! His sensitive and disciplined musical phrasing produced what I would describe as the ultimate beauty while his technical accuracy in all difficult passages was simply breath taking.

Jian Wang has recorded both Haydn cello concertos (No.1 in C and No.2 in D) for Deutsche Grammophon: catalogue number is 4631802, the CD was released on 14 January 2000.