NEXT CONCERTS

5 Sunday 6 October 2019 at 16.00 BOOK NOW Cornerstone Arts Centre, 25 Station Road, Didcot OX11 7NE
We begin our fifth concert with a symphonic fantasy by Rachmaninov – The Rock – depicting with vivid orchestration the meeting of a young girl and an older man during a Christmas Eve blizzard, and much admired by Tchaikovsky. Wagner's opera Tannhauser describes the struggle between sacred and profane love - we play a synthesis of the opera's two most famous orchestral excerpts. The concert ends with Rimsky-Korsakov's dazzling masterpiece Scheherazade, in which the solo violin part is played by DCO's Leader, Kate Bailey.
	Rachmaninov	The Rock - Symphonic Fantasia
	Wagner	Tannhauser: Prelude and Venusberg Music (with semi-chorus from Didcot Choral Society)
	Rimsky-Korsakov	Scheherazade

6 Sunday 8 March 2020 at 16.00 Cornerstone Arts Centre, 25 Station Road, Didcot OX11 7NE
Our sixth concert begins with the quintessentially English rhapsody – A Shropshire Lad – whose unique atmosphere leaves us wondering what future masterpieces Butterworth (a teacher at Radley College) would have written had he not been killed on the Somme. Then comes a superb but rarely-played gem by Josef Suk – Dvorak's son-in-law – whose Fairy Tale is a broad melodic tapestry that relates the path of true love. We end the concert with Franck's evergreen Symphony in D minor, which has delighted audiences for 130 years.
	Butterworth	A Shropshire Lad
	Suk	Fairy Tale - suite for large orchestra
	Franck	Symphony in D minor

7 Sunday 21 June 2020 at 16.00 Cornerstone Arts Centre, 25 Station Road, Didcot OX11 7NE
A refreshing summer sorbet of a concert - with Prokofiev's dazzling Classical Symphony opening a glittering programme of summery classical music gems. Lyadov's last piece then makes a lyrical contrast. The Czech Suite's five dance-like movements seem to portray summery feelings in Dvořák's homeland, while Lars Erik Larsson's Pastoral Suite evokes high-latitude long-day Swedish summers – the piece is written in a neo-classical style similar to Prokofiev's Classical Symphony. A true classic masterpiece concludes our concert – the charming and high-spirited Eighth Symphony of Beethoven, written in in the summer of 1812 and popular ever since.
	Prokofiev	Symphony no 1 "Classical"
	Lyadov	Sorrowful Song
	Dvořák	Czech Suite
	Larsson	Pastoral Suite
	Beethoven	Symphony no 8 in F

8 Sunday 4 October 2020 at 16.00 Cornerstone Arts Centre, 25 Station Road, Didcot OX11 7NE
Russian Masterpieces 2
The Russian theme to this concert begins with the stirring Adagio from Spartacus - made popular by the TV series The Onedin Line. Nicolai Myaskovsky composed in the tuneful tradition of his teachers Glière, Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov, and became known as the father of the Russian symphony – his 27th (and last) being the finest. Mussorgsky's glittering Pictures at an Exhibition, as stunningly orchestrated by Ravel, needs little introduction to concert audiences – as a descriptive musical portrayal of works of art by Victor Hartmann during his travels abroad.
	Khachaturian	Adagio from Spartacus and Phrygia
	Myaskovsky	Symphony no 27 in C minor
	Mussorgsky orch. Ravel	Pictures at an Exhibition

9 March 2021
Wonderfully depictive orchestration is a feature of this concert, as exemplified by Richard Strauss' Four Last Songs with its soaring soprano melodies over a large orchestra. Vincent D'Indy is unjustly neglected these days, but his evocative three-movement symphony describing dawn and sunrise, afternoon in the pines, and evening are long overdue a hearing (probably the first time his music has been performed in Didcot). Two orchestral excerpts from Wagner's Parsifal demonstrate the composer's gift for melody, rich harmony and masterful orchestration.
	Wagner	Parsifal: Prelude
	D'Indy	Summer Day in the Mountains
	Wagner	Parsifal: Good Friday Music
	Strauss, Richard	Four Last Songs (Mary Pope)

10 June 2021
Impressions of Spring and Summer
Leconte de Lisle's poem Les Éolides (The Breezes) captures an idyllic view of spring, with breezes rustling through trees and meadows alike – vividly portrayed in this symphonic poem by Cesar Franck. Fauré's Pelleas and Melisande is no less engaging – a four-movement suite containing the best music from his incidental music to Maeterlinck's drama. The Wasps, written afer three months studying with Ravel in Paris, is the most often played movement from incidental music to Aristophanes' play. Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune is considered a turning point in the history of music, and we admire the impressionistic dreams and desires of the faun in the heat of the afternoon. The tuneful Serenade no 1, which predates Brahms' symphonies, drew rapturous applause at its 1858 premiere.
	Franck	Les Éolides
	Fauré	Pélleas et Mélisande
	Vaughan Williams	Wasps Overture
	Debussy	Prelude a l'après-midi d'un faune
	Brahms	Serenade 1

11 October 2021
The Romantic
Phaéton, the son of Helios in Greek mythology, is the subject of Saint Saëns' captivating symphonic poem. Howard Hanson was one of America's leading symphonists, and the pinnacle of his achievement is widely thought to be his Second Symphony, with its broad romantic sweep that justifies its subtitle. Hungarian-born Viennese composer Karl Goldmark continues the "romantic" theme with the highly melodic piece that cemented his fame – his Sakuntala Overture. And no programme with a "romantic" theme could end without Tchaikovsky's immortal Fantasy Overture – Romeo and Juliet.
	Saint Saëns	Phaéton
	Hanson, Howard	Symphony no 2 "Romantic"
	Goldmark	Sakuntala Overture
	Tchaikovsky	Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture

Later programmes may be subject to adjustment, but we guarantee all concerts are highly tuneful!