20 Jan Robert Mitchell at Royal Festival Hall (Concert Review)

It was somewhat of a privilege to be in attendance at acclaimed pianist and composer Robert Mitchell’s lunchtime concert held in the Southbank Centre last Friday; a privilege in the sense that an established musician of his calibre would be willing to play for an hour completely free of charge. Then again maybe it was for old-time’s sake; Mr Mitchell and the Royal Festival Hall after all, have an auspicious history together. Only last month he could be spotted playing beautifully with the fabulous Soul Noel collective and he wasted no time returning to Waterloo to showcase his solo capabilities. Playing select tunes from his albums such as Equinox and The Greater Good as well as mixing things up with some improvisation, Robert meant business. Except when making a plea on behalf of the victims of the Haitian earthquake and drawing attention to the recent climate change-related crises across the globe, Mitchell kept to a minimum his softly-spoken interjections between songs, letting the music speak for itself instead.