Events

We are delighted to welcome back star young soloist Maxim Calver to play Elgar’s much loved Cello Concerto. Elgar’s concert overture  In the South (Alassio) was inspired by a family holiday on the Italian Riviera and conjures up everything from ‘Joy of Life (wine and macaroni),’ through Mediterranean storms and romantic ruins with shepherds, to Roman armies on the march.  Our programme ends with Hindemith’s most popular work, the Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber – a colourful and exuberant orchestral tour de force featuring marches, fugues and variations on a Chinese folk song. Praised for the [...]

We join forces with Bath Bach Choir to perform Beethoven’s mighty Choral Symphony.  Beethoven was the first composer to introduce voices into a symphony with a setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy. Another innovator, Liszt was the first composer to use the term ‘symphonic poem’ to describe a work linked to some extra-musical idea.  Les Préludes draws on a poem by Lamartine on the theme of love and war. Bath Bach Choir will perform Ešenvalds’ setting of Longfellow’s poem A Shadow, which showcases his powerful use of rich and glorious melody. The 8-part choir, accompanied by the gentle chimes of [...]

Viv McLean makes a welcome return as soloist in Rachmaninov’s powerful and romantic Piano Concerto No. 2. Written as the composer emerged from a three year writer’s block, it has enjoyed enduring popularity ever since. It took Brahms a mere four months to compose his Symphony No. 2 during a summer holiday by an Austrian lake.  Its sunny and lyrical character has earned it the title ‘Pastoral’. Louise Farrenc was Professor of Piano at the Paris Conservatoire from the 1840s and is now regaining the notice she deserves.  Her dramatic and colourful concert Overture No. 2 is in operatic style. [...]

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 [...]