Concert Review – Musical Opinion on ESO at King’s Place 28 April 2020
From the July 2020 issue of Musical Opinion:
This concert, pairing partitas by Martinů and his sometime pupil and inamorata Vitězslava Kaprálová with Mozart’s 20th Piano Concerto in its chamber/string orchestral version and a newly restored version of Dvořák’s wonderful Serenade for strings, was probably my most eagerly anticipated concert of the preceding six months. (In other words, since the UK concert premiere of Truscott’s Elegy coupled with David Matthews’ Double Concerto in Malvern—reviewed in a previous edition of this journal—given by the same orchestra and conductor; London orchestras, please take note.) It did not disappoint, with the Orchestra in top form under chief conductor Kenneth Woods and with one of the finest pianists currently on the circuit, Noriko Ogawa, on sublime form.
Concert Review – Musical Opinion on ESO at Cadogan Hall
From Musical Opinion (July 2019 Issue): This was special. For their debut at the Cadogan Hall, Kenneth Woods and the English Symphony Orchestra constructed a fascinating combination of the very new and very, one might say over-familiar….
ClassicalSource Review: English Symphony Orchestra at Cadogan Hall – Kenneth Woods conducts the Fifth Symphonies of Beethoven & Matthew Taylor – Pavel Šporcl plays Mendelssohn’s E-minor Violin Concerto
Sunday, June 09, 2019 Cadogan Hall, London Reviewed by Robert Matthew-Walker Some may consider that things have come to a pretty pass when it takes an American Music Director of a regional English orchestra to conceive of, and bring to fruition, what he has termed the...
ESO Receives ‘Sirens’ Grant from Association of British Orchestras for Performance of Music by Historic Women Composers.
We are extremely proud and pleased to be selected as one of five orchestras receiving grants from the Association of British Orchestras as part of the Sirens programme for our upcoming perforomance of Vítězslava Kaprálová’s (1915-1940) ‘Partita for Piano and Strings’ at Kings Place on the 28th of April.
Musical Opinion on Matthew Taylor’s Fifth Symphony
A fantastic feature in the current issue of Musical Opinion on the Fifth Symphony of Matthew Taylor, which we will premiere on the 9th of June in Cadogan Hall London on programme which also includes Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with soloist Pavel Sporcl.
CD Review – Musical Opinion on Sawyers’ Trumpet and Violin Concerti, The Valley of Vision (NIMBUS)
A wonderful new five- star review from Guy Rickards in Musical Opinion Quarterly for our latest Nimbus Records recording of concerti for violin and trumpet by Philip Sawyers featuring soloists Alexander Sitkovetsky and Simon Desbruslais under the baton of Kenneth Woods, conductor.
3 April in Malvern Priory: English Symphony Orchestra to bring the true story of one of music’s greatest mysteries to life
It is a story of a long-lost musical masterpiece, forgotten for generations, and the amazing chain of events which led to its rediscovery and long-overdue premiere. It is a story which includes madness, death, a voice from beyond the dead heard in a séance, and international political intrigue. Could this really be a true story from the normally staid world of classical music, or the plot of a novel?
Britain’s Leading Oboe Virtuoso Joins ESO for Vaughan Williams in Malvern Priory
On Saturday, 9th March at 7:30 oboist Nicholas Daniel will be joining the English String Orchestra in Great Malvern Priory for a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams much-loved Oboe Concerto, on a programme which also includes the popular Serenade for Strings by Dvorak.
Inside the Music – 3rd March Hereford Shirehall, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Kaprálová and Martinů
Our conductor reveals some of the threads which join together the four works on this weekend's programme in Hereford's beautiful Shirehall. Book your tickets here. Phone Booking 01905 611427 In person at the Huntingdon Hall Box office CrownGate Worcester, WR1 2ES...
Review- Journal of the UK Sibelius Society on ESO Sibelius Seven and Swan of Tuonela
An extended feature interview in the current issue of the Journal of the UK Sibelius Society from Society President, Edward Clark.Full issue available here The Power and the Glory Review by Edward Clark Maestro Kenneth Woods has reenergised the English Symphony...