Previous Concert

Sibelius Karelia Suite Grieg Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 Sibelius Symphony No. 1 We look north with our programme of music by Scandinavian composers.  Sibelius wrote his early Karelia Suite, with its jaunty marches and folksongs, for a Finnish patriotic pageant.  In Grieg’s varied and colourful incidental music for Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, the scene ranges from the mountains of Norway to the deserts of Arabia. The Suite No. 1 includes some of Grieg’s most well-known music, from the peaceful Morning Mood to the ever-popular Hall of the Mountain King.  The dramatic and tempestuous Symphony No. 1 by Sibelius brings [...]

'Across the Pond' Our summer programme explores the musical connections between 20th century New York and Paris.  Leonard Bernstein felt that Voltaire’s novella Candide, a satire on the hypocrisy of 18th century French society, found parallels in American society of the McCarthy era.  The scintillating overture, brimming with excitement and gorgeous melodies, opens our programme. Both Copland and Gershwin studied in Paris in the 1920s – in Gershwin’s case, not very successfully, but the light-hearted An American in Paris was the result, conjuring up French atmosphere and street sounds with its trio of saxophones and car horns.  His Piano Concerto is a wonderful synthesis of the classical concerto form with [...]

Bath Symphony Orchestra is delighted to welcome guitar virtuoso Craig Ogden to play the concerto written for him by British composer and guitar player William Lovelady, who has worked with many of the world’s leading players and collaborated with such artists as Art Garfunkel, Hugh Masekela and Julian Lloyd Webber.  Opening the programme is the charming and melodic Petite Suite de Concert by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, an African-English composer who worked with Elgar and Stanford.  William Walton’s epic Symphony No. 1 provides a monumental finale, running the emotional gamut from rage and bitterness, through melancholy to exultation and triumph.   Described [...]

'Reach for the Stars' Lift off with Bath Symphony Orchestra as we reach for the stars! Bath Abbey Girls’ Choir and Hayesfield Girls’ School Choir join Bath Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Holst’s The Planets.  The space age theme continues with epic music from the Star Wars and Star Trek films. Holst was interested in the astrological, rather than astronomical significance of the planets. He skilfully uses the colours of a vast orchestra to conjure up their mythical attributes – the aggressive rhythms of Mars, the Bringer of War; the silvery sounds of Venus, the Bringer of Peace; the [...]

Female composers have often struggled for recognition, so Bath Symphony Orchestra is pleased to feature two of them in this British programme.  Grace Williams was a Welsh composer and Penillion refers to the ancient song tradition in Wales.  Ruth Gipps wrote her lyrical but challenging Horn Concerto for her son, Lance Baker. We are delighted to welcome the talented young horn player Annemarie Federle as our soloist.  Both Grace Williams and Ruth Gipps studied with Vaughan Williams and we end our programme with his A London Symphony, atmospherically evoking the misty River Thames, street songs and Westminster chimes. Our soloist [...]