Kovacevich/Beethoven cycle @ Cadogan Hall, London

Stephen Kovacevich has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a pianist and conductor. His international reputation has been built both on his concert appearances, renowned for their thoughtfulness and intensity, and on the highly acclaimed recordings he has made throughout his career.

The Cycle starts on 15 March 2007 at Cadogan Hall, London, running until May 2008, and includes all Beethoven's symphonies and piano concertos as well as many of his overtures and the Violin Romance. All seven performances will take place at Cadogan Hall, London, and each concert will be repeated at various other venues around the country. The opening concert is repeated at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, on 17 March and the second is also being performed at The Anvil, Basingstoke.

Founded by Harry Blech in 1949 as the UK's first chamber orchestra, the London Mozart Players (LMP) is regarded as one of the finest ensembles, bringing together outstanding musicians to perform music of the highest quality. It has performed with many distinguished conductors including Sir John Barbirolli, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Georg Solti and more recently, Andrew Parrott – an acknowledged expert in the field of early music – following Matthias Bamert, Jane Glover and Harry Blech himself.

As a pianist Stephen Kovacevich has won unsurpassed admiration for his playing of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Schubert. In addition to his long and distinguished career as a soloist he has conducted for many years, winning warm praise for his work with orchestras throughout the world in repertoire from the 18th and 19th centuries. Born in Los Angeles, Stephen made his concert debut as a pianist at the age of 11. When he was 18 he moved to England to study with Dame Myra Hess. As an exclusive EMI artist, he recorded both Brahms Piano Concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Sawallisch; No. 1 was Grammy-nominated and won the 1993 Gramophone Award and the Stereo Review Record of the Year, while No. 2 won the Diapason D'Or. The other great projects of his work with EMI were a compelling series of Schubert Sonatas and a set of the 32 Beethoven Sonatas completed in 2003, hailed as one of the most authoritative ever recorded. Since making his conducting debut in 1984 with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Kovacevich has conducted many of the world's finest orchestras, including the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Ulster, Gulbenkian and Vancouver Symphony orchestras and the Tapiola Sinfonietta.

The first concert will include the first two symphonies and the second piano concerto.