MONDAY 1 JULY 2019ST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE

63RD SEASON2018/19

KODÁLYCHRIS LONGDVOŘÁK

TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME TIMELINE

1850

1870 1880 1890 1900

1910

1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990

DVOŘÁK 1841-1904

KODÁLY 1882-1967

1880

1970

Real art is one of the most powerful forcesin the rise of mankind, and he who renders it accessible… is a benefactor of humanity‘ The character of the composer is important, but

the musical director is perhaps even more so‘CHRIS LONG The Pale Blue Dot (2019), p5

The music of the people is like a rare and lovely fl ower growing amid encroaching weeds‘

ZOLTÁN KODÁLY Dances of Marosszék (1927/30), p4

LONG 1973–

2000 20101860

ANTONIN DVOŘÁK Symphony No.6 (1880), p8

COVER IMAGE: Frantisek Kupka’s painting Mme Kupka among Verticals (around 1910-11; detail). The Czech artist (1871-1957) was one of the pioneers of abstract art. Photo: courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York

In accordance with the requirements of Westminster City Council, persons shall not be permitted to sit or stand in any gangway. The taking of photographs and use of recording equipment is strictly forbidden without formal consent from St John’s. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the venue. Refreshments are permitted only in the restaurant in the crypt, which is open for licensed refreshments during the interval and after the concert. Please ensure that all digital watch alarms, pagers and mobile phones are switched off.

PHONE 020 7222 1061 ONLINE sjss.org.uk

MONDAY 1 JULY 2019 7.30PMST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE LONDON

RUSSELL KEABLE ConductorALAN TUCKWOOD Leader

ST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE

St John’s Smith Square Charitable Trust: registered charity no. 1045390; registered in England; company no. 3028678. KSO: registered charity no. 1069620

KODÁLYDances of Marosszék

Symphony No.6 in D major, Op.60

Interval 20 minutes

CHRIS LONGThe Pale Blue DotWorld première

DVOŘÁK

TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME ZOLTÁN KODÁLY 1882-1967

KODÁLY Dances of Marosszék (1927/30)

ONE OF ZOLTÁN KODÁLY’S MOST remarkable achievements was to collect and preserve between 3,000 and 4,000 folk melodies, a result of expeditions that were often made with fellow Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, whom he met in 1905. These journeys not only helped to shape their musical identities and cement a lifelong friendship, but also changed the direction of their country’s music.

Bartók used folk song as a point of departure, but Kodály always depended on actual folk songs for his material; indeed, the composer Arthur Bliss said that “Kodály is the voice of Hungary in music”. International fame arrived in 1923 with his great choral work Psalmus Hungaricus, and grew with his opera Háry János, first performed in 1926. He became one of Hungary’s major musical personalities, influential as a teacher, music critic and musicologist as well as a composer.

Kodály had discovered a rich store of songs and dances in Marosszék in Eastern Hungary,

a region where an ancient form of dance music had survived. The Dances of Marosszék were conceived in 1923, as a commission to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the union of Buda and Pest, but Kodály put them to one side when he learned that Bartók was also working on a dance suite for the festivities.

Returning to the work in 1927, Kodály wove six of these folk tunes into a colourful and exotic piano piece. At the suggestion of the conductor Arturo Toscanini, he orchestrated the work in 1930. It was first performed in Dresden in November of that year, and Toscanini conducted it with the New York Philharmonic two weeks later. In 1935, a ballet, A Rebel’s Tale, was created by combining the work with Kodály’s Dances of Galánta (1933).

The Dances of Marosszék are shaped into a rondo with three interludes and a coda, the highly expressive main theme always returning in a varied form. The first interlude is a vigorous dance tune in strict time and the second a richly ornamented melody that recalls a shepherd’s pipe, while the third suggests a bagpipe. The coda is almost a fourth episode, closing the work with a wildly defiant dance.

Béla Bartók (left) with Kodály in 1905

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FABIAN WATKINSONProgramme note: © the author, 2019

The Hungarian artist Jenö Gadányi’s 1950 portrait (detail) of Zoltán Kodály

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JULY 2019 5

CHRIS LONG The Pale Blue Dot (2019)

IN 1990, NASA GAVE THE VOYAGER 1 space probe a final mission: to photograph the solar system from deep space, at a distance of around four billion miles. The astronomer Carl Sagan had campaigned for years for the probe to take these photographs, and when the resulting image of Earth (pictured overleaf) was processed, the planet was shown as a tiny, bluish-white dot against the blackness of space, hanging in what seem to be rays of sunlight (actually reflections across the camera lens).

Sagan went on to write a book entitled Pale Blue Dot (1994), the opening lines of which are now as famous as the photograph itself:

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilisation, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar’, every ‘supreme leader’, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

This was the inspiration for my new work. The words and the image are a humbling reminder of our place in the universe, highlighting the need for wonder and awe to have a place in our lives. In a world caught up in petty politics and futile conflicts, things that can seem important are, in the grand scheme of things, relatively meaningless. Our lives revolve around a myriad of inward-looking, self-created problems.

This photograph is a reminder – no, a plea – to look up at the sky, at the stars, to realise where we are. Not to stand back and ignore humanity, but to live our lives with a changed perspective, knowing that as we travel through the vastness of space, our existence on this planet is unimaginably fragile, and that life is its most precious cargo.

The piece starts with slow descending figures in the strings and the woodwind, expressing stillness, vastness and inevitability. There are punctuations that gather momentum as our viewpoint rapidly cascades into the inconsistencies of human existence. With confident self-importance, the music twists and turns, never settling, with rapid changes of metre and rhythm, melodic fragments appearing and then disappearing.

Sagan’s quote summarises every aspect of human existence, something I do not think it is possible to do within a single piece of music. There is time, however, to acknowledge the positive, transcendental qualities of the human condition, as the music pivots around a slow central section. The camera slows and focuses on “every young couple in love”, “every mother and father”, every “hopeful child”.

We pan away and again move through ever-accelerating changes, clashing and abrasive, until suddenly we are back in the stillness as the strings ascend, only pausing at the end to take in the sight of that “mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam” – our Pale Blue Dot.

CHRIS LONGProgramme note: © the author, 2019

‘Voyager 1’s photograph of Earth highlights the need for awe in our lives’The composer on the work’s inspiration

6 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME

Chris Long’s music, which embraces styles ranging from classical and contemporary to musical theatre, rock and jazz, has been performed by groups including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Orchestra of Opera North. He was composer-in-association at the City of Birmingham Choir in 2004/05, and a work written for the choir, O Lord, Remember, won a British Composer Award in 2006. Long, who is also a visual artist, is currently completing a PhD at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. We spoke to him ahead of tonight’s world première of The Pale Blue Dot (2019).

How did you begin composing?

I played classical guitar when I was younger, but I wrote an orchestral piece and had it performed quite early on, so I carried on and did a Masters in composition before I started teaching. As a guitarist, I write differently to other composers; people who play the piano write at the piano, and you can tell.

Which other composers do you admire?

When I’m writing, I try to avoid listening to other composers, but Lutosławski was a big influence on me as a student. As soon as I heard Mi-parti [1975-76], I thought: “Wow, this is unbelievable.” His work led me to admire other Polish composers, such as Panufnik and Górecki; they all have clear dramatic characters and direction in their pieces. I listen to a huge range of music, and John Coltrane was another early influence. His album A Love Supreme is a great example of how he repeats and varies melodic ideas.

How did this commission come about?

It’s part of the research for my PhD; I’ve been doing it for seven years, and this is the final piece. It all began after I took part in Making Music’s Adopt a Composer scheme. The composers who participate can be paired up with anyone from a ukulele quartet in the Outer Hebrides to a recorder soloist, but I landed on my feet and got the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Choir.

I got so much out of the experience that I thought: “Let’s see if we can work out what makes successful collaborations.” So I went to the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and talked to Joe Cutler, the head of composition there; the composer Howard Skempton is one of my tutors, too. I’ve since worked with groups including a chamber orchestra, a brass band and a choir, so there’s been huge variety. It’s an opportunity to look at non-professional performers in the best sense of the word.

So what makes a successful collaboration?

The character and the approach of the composer are important, but the musical

INTERVIEWCHRIS LONG

The Midlands-based composer Chris LongPH

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CHRIS LONG 1973–

director is perhaps even more so; if they’re open to something, it can make or break the piece. The composer and the ensemble both need to be flexible when a new piece is being written, and Russell [Keable] has been really flexible with the way I’ve had to work on this piece. KSO is open and welcoming, and that makes a big difference, too.

You asked the orchestra for ideas; what response did you receive?

One person suggested ending the work very delicately, almost in silence, so that’s what I’ve done. The piece ends with a very high string note, with just a piano note finishing it off; I was going to put that at the start, but I flipped it around. It’s probably not what that person is expecting, because they said: “Start with a lot of violence, and then have one great big 15-minute-long diminuendo.” I thought: “I’m not sure I can drag it out for 15 minutes! But OK, let’s do it that way round.”

What did you enjoy about writing the work?

As a composer, you don’t often get the chance to hear a work and then refine it. It’s normally quite nerve-racking, because you think: “What if they don’t like it? What if I don’t like it? I should have done this, I should have done

that.” So the opportunity to make changes to the music during the collaborative process is one of the nice things about this project.

What’s coming up for you next?

I’m going to go back to Brackley and District Band in Northamptonshire, because I owe them another work. The brass-band world is based on competitions, so I fancy trying my hand at writing a test piece for them. It’s nice when what you’re doing has some kind of practical function; for a composer, that’s quite rare.

INTERVIEW BY RIA HOPKINSON

The Pale Blue Dot (detail), an image of Earth taken by the Voyager 1 space probe in 1990

What should the audience listen out for?

The piece opens with a descending pattern, before everything is disrupted by clashing chords on the piano. A lot of other rhythms cascade in, and the piece twists and turns all over the place, before it ends with a rising cycle up to the top, expressing the idea of expanse and stillness. It ends with a high string note and a piano note, representing the Pale Blue Dot.

JULY 2019 7

8 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME

CONTINUED ON P10

DVOŘÁK SYMPHONY NO.6 IN D MAJOR, OP.60 (1880)

I ALLEGRO NON TANTO II ADAGIO III SCHERZO (FURIANT), PRESTO IV FINALE, ALLEGRO CON SPIRITO

Although born in a small Bohemian village where his father was both butcher and innkeeper, Antonin Dvořák rose to become the most important of all Czech composers, his symphonic and chamber works ranking alongside those of the greatest 19th-century masters. But he never lost his love of nature, the freshness and spontaneity of his music, with its seemingly inexhaustible melodic flow, always radiating the spirit of the Czech countryside. Brahms became a great admirer, introducing Dvořák to his publisher, Fritz

Simrock, who helped to establish the younger composer’s international reputation.

In November 1879, Dvořák went to Vienna to hear the eminent Wagnerian Hans Richter conduct his third Slavonic Rhapsody. This was a great success, Dvořák writing to Simrock that “Richter… showed me a quite outstanding mark of his esteem by inviting me to dine with him and members of the orchestra… and we spent a delightful evening. I had to promise Richter a symphony for the next season”.

Dvořák started the new work – his sixth symphony in order of composition, but the first to be published – in August 1880. Hoping that Richter would include it in one of his Christmas concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic later that year, he worked at great speed, finishing the composition in just over three weeks and the orchestration in 18 days.

On 23 October, Dvořák reported to his friend Alois Gobl that “four copyists are writing out the symphony and next week it will go to Vienna”. A month later, he wrote to Gobl that “Richter likes the symphony tremendously” – he had played it to the conductor on the piano – “so much that he kissed me after each movement and will give the first performance on 26 December”. Unfortunately, this was postponed until the following March, and then, much to Dvořák’s disappointment, was cancelled, perhaps because of strong anti-Czech feeling in the Austrian capital.

The composer Antonin Dvořák in 1882

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‘Every bar of this work shows the composer at the height of his maturity’Dvořák’s biographer Alec Robertson

JULY 2019 9

ANTONIN DVOŘÁK 1841-1904

The Czech artist Frantisek Kupka (1871-1957) was one of the pioneers of abstract art. His painting Piano Keyboard/Lake (1909) marked a break with his representational style

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TONIGHT’S PROGRAMME ANTONIN DVOŘÁK 1841-1904

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The conductor Hans Richter, to whom Dvořák dedicated his Sixth Symphony

FABIAN WATKINSONProgramme note: © the author, 2019

In the end, the work was first performed in March 1881, but in Prague, by the Bohemian Philharmonic conducted by Adolf Cech, a friend from Dvořák’s student days. It was an immediate success, the Scherzo having to be repeated, and Dvořák considered dedicating the work to the Prague orchestra. But at the end of that year, it was published with a dedication to Richter, and Simrock sent the first printed copy to Dvořák as a New Year’s gift.

The work then began to make its way around the world, coming to be regarded as one of the greatest symphonies since Beethoven. As Dvořák’s biographer Alec Robertson notes: “Every bar of this work shows him at the height of his maturity. The village boy can move among the great of the symphonic world with ease and assurance. He speaks their tongue, albeit with his own accent, even when he pays homage to Brahms’s symphony in the same key.”

Richter made amends by performing the work at a London Philharmonic Society concert in

May 1882, three weeks after August Manns had given the London première at the Crystal Palace. Dvořák conducted the work in London in March 1884, at St James’s Hall, the Musical Times reporting that it “excited the audience to positive enthusiasm”. This warm response from English audiences led to a long and fruitful relationship that dominated the next few years of the composer’s life. He made no fewer than six visits to England between 1884 and 1890, a period when much of his output, including his next symphony, was prompted by commissions and invitations from London and the provinces.

Brahms had written his Second Symphony three years earlier, in 1877, and although its spirit occasionally hovers over the first movement, it is Dvořák’s distinctive Czech accent that makes the strongest impression. The wonderfully sunny and optimistic opening theme is repeated grandioso (one of Dvořák’s favourite markings), while the second subject has an almost waltz-like lilt, its pendant on the oboe, according to Robertson, being “as lovely as opening a window on a spring morning”.

The Romantic Adagio grows naturally, almost like an improvisation. The opening in the woodwind, reminiscent of the slow movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, leads to a lyrical theme worthy of Schubert, which more or less pervades this meditative nocturne.

The Scherzo is a powerful and exciting Furiant, a Czech rustic dance with fiery cross-rhythms; the Trio, with its piccolo solos, forms a gentle contrast. Characterised by its stirring rhythmic drive, the Finale is the work’s crowning glory. Although the opening theme may at first seem rather four-square, Dvořák avoids any rigidity by squeezing every ounce of interest from it, pushing forward with ever-increasing energy to the triumphant jubilation of the presto coda.

CONTINUED FROM P8

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12 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

RUSSELL KEABLEARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

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RUSSELL KEABLE is one of the UK’s most exciting musicians, praised as a conductor in both the national and international press. “Keable and his orchestra did magnificently,” wrote the Guardian; “one of the most memorable evenings at the South Bank for many a month,” said the Musical Times.

In more than 30 years with KSO, Keable has established the group as one of the UK’s finest non-professional orchestras. It is known for its ambitious programming of contemporary music, and he has led premières of works by British composers including Robin Holloway, David Matthews, Peter Maxwell Davies, John McCabe, Joby Talbot and John Woolrich.

Keable has received particular praise as a champion of the music of Erich Korngold: the British première of the composer’s Die tote Stadt was hailed as a triumph, and research in Los Angeles led to a world première of music from Korngold’s film score for The Sea Hawk.

Keable performs with orchestras and choirs throughout the UK, has conducted in Prague and Paris (filmed by British and French television) and has worked with the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra in Dubai. He has recorded two symphonies by Robert Simpson, and a Beethoven CD was released in New York.

Keable holds the post of director of conducting at the University of Surrey. He trained at the University of Nottingham and King’s College, London University. He studied conducting at London’s Royal College of Music with Norman Del Mar, and later with George Hurst.

Over five years, Keable established an innovative education programme with the Schidlof Quartet. He is a dynamic lecturer and workshop leader, working with audiences ranging from schoolchildren and music students to international business conferences.

Keable is also in demand as a composer and arranger. His opera Burning Waters, commissioned by the Buxton Festival, was premièred in July 2000; he has also composed music for the mime artist Didier Danthois to use in prisons and special-needs schools.

Russell Keable regularly gives premières of works by British composers working today

RUSSELL KEABLE

Music director

JULY 2019 13

KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Russell Keable has aired a number of unusual works, as well as delivering significant musical landmarks: the London première of Dvořák’s opera Dimitrij and the British première of Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, the latter praised by the Evening Standard as “a feast of brilliant playing”. In 2004, KSO and the London Oriana Choir performed a revival of Walford Davies’s oratorio Everyman, a recording of which is available on the Dutton label.

Contemporary music continues to be the lifeblood of KSO. Recent programmes have featured works by an impressive roster of composers working today, including Thomas Adès, Charlotte Bray, Brett Dean, Jonny Greenwood, Magnus Lindberg, Rodion Shchedrin, Joby Talbot and John Woolrich.

KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, now in its 63rd season, enjoys an enviable reputation as one of the finest non-professional orchestras in the UK. Its founding aim – “to provide students and amateurs with an opportunity to perform concerts at the highest possible level” – remains key to its mission.

KSO has had only two principal conductors: its founder, Leslie Head, and Russell Keable, who has been with the orchestra for more than three decades. The knowledge, passion and dedication of these musicians has shaped KSO, giving the orchestra a distinctive repertoire that sets it apart from other groups.

Revivals and premières of new works often feature in the orchestra’s repertoire, alongside major works of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. World and British premières have included music by Bax, Brian, Bruckner, Nielsen, Schoenberg, Sibelius and Verdi.

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The orchestra at Cadogan Hall, one of its regular performance venues, in January 2017

KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Founded in 1956

CONTINUED ON P14

‘A force to be reckoned with… London is lucky to have KSO’Classical Source

14 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

THE ORCHESTRAARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

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In 2005, Errollyn Wallen’s Spirit Symphony, performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra, won the Radio 3 Listeners’ Award at the British Composer Awards. In 2014, KSO gave the world première of Stephen Montague’s From the Ether, commissioned by St John’s Smith Square to mark its 300th anniversary.

During the 2014/15 season, KSO collaborated with Seán Doherty as part of Making Music’s Adopt a Composer scheme. Matthew Taylor’s Symphony No.4 (2015-16) was written for the orchestra, as was Chris Long’s The Pale Blue Dot (2019), which receives its première tonight.

In April 2018, KSO staged its 16th “sponsored play” event at Westfield London, raising more than £21,000 for War Child and the Kensington & Chelsea Foundation’s Grenfell Tower Fund. KSO also supports the music programme at Pimlico Academy, its primary rehearsal home.

This reflects the orchestra’s long history of charitable activities: KSO’s first concert was given in aid of the Hungarian Relief Fund, and it has developed links with the Kampala Symphony Orchestra and Music School

under its KSO2 programme, providing training, fundraising and instruments.

The reputation of the orchestra is reflected in the quality of international artists who appear with KSO. Recent soloists include Nikolai Demidenko, Sir John Tomlinson, Yvonne Howard, Katherine Watson, Matthew Trusler, Fenella Humphreys and Richard Watkins, in addition to up-and-coming artists such as the pianists Martin James Bartlett, Alexander Ullman and Richard Uttley.

The orchestra works with a guest conductor each year; recently, these have included Jacques Cohen, Nicholas Collon, Andrew Gourlay, Holly Mathieson and Michael Seal.

KSO regularly performs at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Cadogan Hall and St John’s Smith Square, and celebrated its 60th anniversary with a gala concert at the Barbican Centre in May 2017.

KSO is “one of London’s most enterprising ensembles”, according to Classical Source

CONTINUED FROM P13 ‘A feast of brilliant playing’The Evening Standard

JULY 2019 15

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16 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

SPONSOR OR DONATESUPPORT US

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SPONSORSHIP AND DONATIONS Make a difference to KSO YOU, OUR AUDIENCE, can really help us through sponsorship. Anyone can be a sponsor, and any level of support – from corporate sponsorship of a concert or soloist to individual backing of the orchestra – is enormously valuable to us. We offer a variety of benefits to sponsors, tailored to their needs, such as programme and website advertising, guest tickets and assistance with entertaining.

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JULY 2019 17

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18 KENSINGTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

THE ORCHESTRATONIGHT’S PERFORMERS

FIRST VIOLINAlan TuckwoodHelen TurnellHelen HockingsSusan KnightMatthew HickmanClaire DoveyTaro VisserRia HopkinsonHelen StanleyMathias HerrErica JealRobert ChatleyHeather Bingham

SECOND VIOLINBronwen FisherFrancoise RobinsonAdrian GordonClaire MaughamDanielle DawsonRufus RottenbergJeremy BradshawKathleen RuleCamilla NelsonJill IvesIvan ChengRichard SheahanDaniel Flesch

VIOLABeccy Spencer Andrew McPhersonGuy RaybouldSam BladeHattie Rayfi eld

Meredith Estren Sally RandallLiz LavercombePhil CooperJane Spencer-DavisTom Milburn-Philpott Alison Nethsingha

CELLOJoseph SpoonerAna RamosRosi CalleryYiwen HonAlex Breedon Natasha Briant David BaxendaleJessica Quarmby

DOUBLE BASSSteph FlemingSophia Preston

FLUTEChristopher WyattDan Dixon

PICCOLODan Dixon

OBOEChris AstlesJuliette Murray-Topham

CLARINETChris HorrilGraham Elliott

BASSOONNick RampleyKriskin Allum

CONTRABASSOONKriskin Allum

FRENCH HORNJon BoswellAlex ReganAndy FeistHeather Pawson

TRUMPETStephen WillcoxJohn Hackett

TROMBONEPhil CambridgeKen McGregor

BASS TROMBONEStefan Terry

TUBANeil Wharmby

TIMPANITim Alden

PERCUSSIONTim AldenCatherine HockingsSimon WillcoxAndrew Barnard

PIANOLucía Sánchez de Haro

MUSIC DIRECTORRussell Keable

TRUSTEESChris AstlesDavid BaxendaleElizabeth BellSam BladeJon BoswellRosi CalleryJohn DoveySabina NielsenHeather PawsonNick Rampley

ENDOWMENT TRUSTRobert DrennanGraham ElliottJudith Ní BhreasláinNick RampleyNeil Ritson

EVENTSCatherine AbramsChris AstlesJudith Ní BhreasláinSabina NielsenBeccy Spencer

MEMBERSHIPJuliette BarkerDavid BaxendaleAndrew Neal

MARKETINGJeremy BradshawRia HopkinsonJo JohnsonAndrew NealGuy Raybould

PROGRAMMESRia Hopkinson

WOODWIND COACHPeter Harrison

CONTACT US:

JULY 2019 19

THE ORCHESTRA IN PICTURES

KSO, which tonight gives the world première of Chris Long’s The Pale Blue Dot (2019), “certainly does not restrict itself to safe repertoire”, says Classical Music Magazine

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BOOK TICKETS & FIND OUT MORE:

MONDAY 7 OCTOBER 2019ST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE, 7.30PMAnna Clyne MasqueradeBerg Lulu-SuiteSoloist: Mari Wyn Williams

Prokofi ev Symphony No.5

TUESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2019ST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE, 7.30PMWeber Der Freischütz OvertureHindemith Symphony: Mathis der MalerBeethoven Symphony No.6

THURSDAY 23 JANUARY 2020QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL, 7.30PMBrahms Piano Concerto No.2Soloist: to be confirmed

James MacMillan Symphony No.4

SATURDAY 14 MARCH 2020ST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE, 7.30PMBernstein Candide OvertureKorngold Violin Concerto Soloist: Stephen Bryant

Shostakovich Symphony No.11: The Year 1905Guest conductor: Michael Seal

MAY 2020 (DATE TBC)FAIRFIELD HALLS PHOENIX CONCERT HALL, 7.30PMMahler Symphony No.3

TUESDAY 30 JUNE 2020ST JOHN’S SMITH SQUARE, 7.30PMSibelius En SagaNicholas Maw Dance ScenesTchaikovsky Symphony No.6

64TH SEASON2019/20

PHOTO: © SIM CANETTY-CLARKE