28th May – 30th March
Thursday 28 May @ 7pm
ESO String Orchestra – Elgar’s Strings in Malvern
6.15pm Pre-concert talk with Nicholas Daniel in conversation with Kenneth Woods
Music lovers might be forgiven for mistaking composer Arnold Schoenberg for the ‘Big Bad Wolf” of classical music but in his 1899 Romantic tone poem, Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), his music purrs as sweetly as a kitten. This lush and lyrical masterpiece crowns a night with the English String Orchestra also featuring beautiful and evocative works by Elgar and Thea Musgrave. Internationally renowned oboist, Nicholas Daniel, is the featured soloist.
Programme:
Elgar: Serenade for Strings
Elgar: In Moonlight
Elgar: Chanson de Nuit
Musgrave: Night Windows
Sibelius: Rakastava
Schoenberg: Verklarte Nacht
Artists:
English Symphony Orchestra
Kenneth Woods, conductor
Nicholas Daniel, oboe
© Michael Whitefoot
Friday 29 May @ 7.30pm
Reaching For The Stars – Great British Tone Poems
This concert celebrates the descriptive and evocative powers of three of British music’s greatest tone poets. Bax’s masterpiece, Tintagel, is a uniquely stirring evocation of the mysterious hinterlands in which the Arthurian legends were born, while Elgar’s Falstaff is a richly textured portrait of the life and personality of one of Shakespeare’s most memorable characters. Holst’s ground-breaking suite The Planets, a work of unique and extraordinary power, beauty and immediacy crowns this thrilling evening of music with an invocation of the infinite.
Programme:
Arnold Bax: Tintagel
Elgar: Falstaff
Holst: The Planets
Artists:
English Symphony Orchestra
Chorus tbc
Kenneth Woods, conductor
© Michael Whitefoot
Saturday 30 May @ 7.30pm
ESO Gala Concert
Our Gala this year is built around the two works that frame Elgar’s unique career as a composer of orchestral music. His ‘symphony for chorus and orchestra’ The Black Knight is one of his earliest works, and with it Elgar astounded the musical world with his brilliance, originality and mastery of his vast choral and orchestral forces.
His final major orchestral work, the Cello Concerto, holds a unique place at the heart of British musical culture. It is heard here in the version for viola prepared by Lionel Tertis and premiered under Elgar’s baton in 1930 in a performance by the outstanding violist Rosalind Ventris, who wowed Elgar Festival audiences in 2025 with her poetic interpretations of works by Venables and Fribbins. We open with our final celebration of Featured Composer Thea Musgrave – her rollicking and joyful suite The Seasons.
Programme:
Thea Musgrave: The Seasons
Elgar: Cello Concerto op. 85 (arr Lionel Tertis)
Elgar: The Black Knight op.25
Elgar: Imperial March op. 32
Artists:
English Symphony Orchestra
Elgar Festival Chorus
Kenneth Woods, conductor
Rosalind Ventris, viola
Stephen Shellard, Elgar Festival Chorus Director
