The Oboist Entertains: François Leleux interprets Mozart.

Austria, Poland, Italy: oboe virtuoso François Leleux explores them all, in irresistible style, with the English Chamber Orchestra.

The young Mozart was a born entertainer. And that’s just as well, because so is François Leleux – conductor, communicator and oboist extraordinaire. ‘Leleux is a remarkably charismatic, flamboyant performer, matching immaculate technique with a dazzingly vivid identification with his music’, writes one reviewer.

The Arts Desk enthused about his ‘outsize charisma and musicianship’.

Leleux begins, of course, with Mozart – conducting the jubilant Haffner Symphony, written for a party in Mozart’s native Salzburg, and bursting with melody, grandeur and wit.

Leleux’s conducting is as vivacious as his playing: ‘detailed, demanding, but full of such abundant enthusiasm that you’re swept up in it from the first moment’ wrote one critic.

Leleux then brings his irrepressible poetry and flair as soloist in Mozart’s sprightly oboe concerto.

Next, he strips back the orchestra and leaps into the 20th century with Penderecki’s Capriccio.

Penderecki’s reputation as one of the world’s most compelling living composers is well justified and this inventive little showpiece, dating from the year The Beatles released ‘Yesterday’, perfectly demonstrates Leleux’s technical prowess on the oboe.

Finally it’s time for sunshine and sheer, uninhibited melody as Leleux conducts the ECO in Mendelssohn’s exuberant and effervescent postcard from Italy.

François Leleux

oboe/conductor