Future Concert

Our Autumn concert has a Germanic theme. We open with Siegfried on his journey down the Rhine from Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle, recalling many of the iconic leitmotifs from the opera. We are delighted to welcome soprano Siân Dicker to join us for the lovely and elegiac Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss. The Emperor Waltz was written by the Waltz King, Johann Strauss II to celebrate the meeting of two Emperors – Franz Josef I of Austria and Wilhelm II of Germany, and brings us a stream of unforgettable melodies. Our programme ends with more Richard Strauss – the [...]

Hollywood Nights Everyone knows the iconic ‘Sunrise’ opening of Richard Strauss’s tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra, used in Stanley Kubrick’s ground-breaking film 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Now hear our vast orchestral forces bring the rest of this epic work to life.  Based on a philosophical novel by Nietzsche, it deals with the forces of Nature, mankind’s struggle to control his destiny and triumph over the challenges of existence.  In the rest of the programme, we bring you much loved blockbuster film themes from Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Jurassic Park and many other Hollywood favourites. William Birkbeck is a dynamic [...]

Inspired by a trip to Rome, Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien brings us a colourful feast of Italian folk music, whirling tarantellas and carnival scenes.  We are delighted to welcome Fenella Humphreys as our soloist for Max Bruch’s ever-popular Violin Concerto, full of gorgeous melodies.  Arguably the greatest symphonist of the 20th century, Shostakovich wrote his Tenth Symphony immediately after the death of Josef Stalin.  Movingly depicting the terror and tragedy of the Stalin years, the symphony ends with the assertion of the individual’s triumph over a dehumanizing regime. Fenella Humphreys, winner of both the 2025 and 2023 BBC Music Magazine Premiere [...]