Concert Season 2024 - 2025
With Thanks to our Sponsors
Conductor - Neil Mantle MBE
Note: All evening concerts commence at 7:30pm
in St Cuthbert's Church, Lothian Road
Tickets for all concerts are available from the Usher Hall Box Office.
Sunday 24th November 2024 at 7:30pm
Dvořák Violin Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony No.8 in F major
Dvořák: Violin Concerto in A minor
soloist: Callum Smart
Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé - Second Suite
Every music lover knows Dvořák’s lovely concerto for ‘cello, but his less widely known violin concerto is also brimful of beautiful melodies. Making his first appearance with us is Scottish virtuoso Callum Smart, who is a committed advocate of the work.
By way of contrast, we feature Ravel’s kaleidoscopic portrait of Spain in his "Rapsodie Espagnole", and the sensuous second suite from his celebrated ballet Daphnis and Chloé.
For these works, the orchestra will be at its full strength of one hundred players - don’t miss it!
Tickets, price £17.00 (concessions: £15.00; Student: £8.00; accompanied schoolchildren: free), are available from the Usher Hall Box Office.
Sunday 2nd February 2025 at 7:30pm
Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto
Walton: Overture "Portsmouth Point"
Brahms: Piano Concerto No.2 in B♭ major
soloist: Adam Davies
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No.3 in A minor
Such was the impact of young British pianist Adam Davies with his stunning performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No 4 in 2021, that conductor Neil Mantle immediately extended a return invitation. This time, Adam joins us in a very different, but equally demanding concerto, that of Johannes Brahms.
Rachmaninoff - one of the orchestra’s specialities - has not been forgotten, however, as we feature his passionate Third Symphony. Although this, one of the composer’s last works, was written in Switzerland in 1936, it is full of romantic nostalgia for the composer’s native country.
Tickets, price £17.00 (concessions: £15.00; Student: £8.00; accompanied schoolchildren: free), are available from the Usher Hall Box Office.
Sunday 11th May 2025 at 7:30pm
The Lark Ascending
Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme (‘Enigma’)
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
violin soloist: Richard Gratwick
Finzi: Dies Natalis
soloist: James Slimings (tenor)
Britten: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell
To close our season, we feature the music of these shores, including two 'Classic FM top twenty' favourites: Vaughan Williams’ eloquent depiction of the lazy motion of a lark in flight, in which we feature our superb leader Richard Gratwick, and Elgar’s well loved ‘Enigma’ Variations, in which he immortalised his friends in delighted miniatures - including, of course - "Nimrod", which was a key factor in spreading this wonderful work worldwide.
Another - very different - set of variations unites the 17th and 20th centuries in the form of the theme of Henry Purcell with the imaginative thematic transformations by Benjamin Britten. A splendid opportunity for each and every section of your wonderful orchestra to demonstrate their virtuosity!
We look forward to welcoming you to this exciting and varied season of concerts!
Tickets, price price £17.00 (concessions: £15.00; Student: £8.00; accompanied schoolchildren: free), are available from the Usher Hall Box Office.
Future dates and programme details will be announced here as they become available.
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