Category: Past Events

The English Symphony Orchestra undertake a journey of discovery in a programme that captures the imagination featuring a world premiere performance and also violinist Esther Abrami.

Another much-loved favourite from the repertoire – Grieg’s only piano concerto, famous for its opening drumroll, poetic second movement and of course, Morecambe & Wise Andre Previn! – forms the centrepiece of tonight’s concert, with Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa making her first Town Hall appearance.

The outer works are equally impressive, beginning with Brahms’ turbulent and tormented concert overture of 1888 and closing with a work that has often been voted the finest symphony of the 20th century – Sibelius’ Fifth. Only three movements long, but a masterpiece that signals how alive and well the Romantic language still was in 1915.

Violinist Zoë Beyers curates a mixtape concert of music that straddles continents and centuries – American melodies combined with classical favourites, from Purcell to Caroline Shaw, Barber to Bartók. Take a deep breath and immerse yourself in the gorgeous sounds of strings.

In the second of their ‘American & Canadian Sounds’ concerts, the London Chamber Music Society present this concert featuring some highlights of twentieth-century American music. Samuel Barber’s famous Adagio for strings is followed by the tone poem ‘Dismal Swamp’ by William Grant Still. Gershwin’s popular Rhapsody in Blue is performed in a striking arrangement for chamber orchestra before we have two pieces by Aaron Copland; the haunting sounds of ‘Quiet City’ and the original chamber orchestra version of his famous ballet suite ‘Appalachian Spring’ from the 1940s.

Join English Symphony Orchestra for an American Rhapsody featuring Gershwin’s timeless Rhapsody in Blue and Copland’s Appalachian Spring.