NEXT CONCERTS

BOOK NOW 2 Sunday 14 October 2018 at 16.00 Cornerstone Arts Centre, 25 Station Road, Didcot OX11 7NE
Following our very successful inaugural concert in February 2018, we begin our second concert with a rare gem by Croydon composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor at the suggestion of Elgar. We follow this with Elgar's immortal Cello Concerto – practically his last work, and full of mourning for a lost world after the first world war. Soloist Jacqueline Johnson then treats us to an orchestration by world-famous cellist Lynn Harrell of Victor Herbert's short piano piece "Yesterthoughts", and we end the concert with Dvorak's happy and tuneful Sixth Symphony.
	Coleridge-Taylor	Ballade in A minor
	Elgar	Cello Concerto (Jacqueline Johnson)
	Herbert	Yesterthoughts (Jacqueline Johnson)
	Dvorak	Symphony no 6 in D
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3 Sunday 3 March 2019 at 16.00 Cornerstone Arts Centre, 25 Station Road, Didcot OX11 7NE
We begin our third concert with the popular and exuberant overture to Glinka's opera Russlan and Ludmilla. Then comes an unjustly neglected gem by Glazunov – his tuneful Poème Lyrique, and the first half ends with Mussorgsky's epic Night on the Bare Mountain – depicting a witches' sabbath, and full of contrasts and innovation. The concert also includes one of the most popular symphonies of all time – Tchaikovsky's Fifth. Who can resist hearing the famous horn solo in the second movement?
	Glinka	Russlan and Ludmilla Overture
	Glazunov	Poème Lyrique
	Mussorgsky	Night on the Bare Mountain
	Tchaikovsky	Symphony no 5 in E minor

4 Sunday 9 June 2019 at 16.00 Cornerstone Arts Centre, 25 Station Road, Didcot OX11 7NE
Our fourth concert begins with Emil von Reznicek's effervescent Donna Diana Overture, followed by an unjustly neglected melodic miniature by Glazunov. Young rising star Leo Appel then joins us for Bruch's ever-popular First Violin Concerto. Henri Duparc was a very self-critical French composer who destroyed much of his orchestral output. His Danse Lente is one of only three surviving orchestral pieces, and it deserves to be heard much more frequently. Effervescence returns aplenty as the concert ends with the 17-year-old Bizet's tuneful and remarkably accomplished Symphony in C.
	Reznicek	Donna Diana Overture
	Glazunov	Serenade no 1 in A
	Bruch	Violin Concerto no 1 in G minor (Leo Appel)
	Duparc	Danse Lente
	Bizet	Symphony in C

5 Sunday 6 October 2019 at 16.00 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
	Rimsky-Korsakov	Scheherazade

6 February / March 2020
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