2017 2016
OXFORD PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Thursday 17 November 2016, 7.30pm, Cheltenham Town Hall
Since his success as Silver Medal winner of the 1982 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Peter Donohoe has built an extraordinary career, encompassing a huge repertoire. He is acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, versatility and commanding technique. Tonight he performs Mendelssohn’ s brooding Second Piano Concerto, an introspective and dramatic work first performed in Birmingham in 1837. Either side of the concerto are two Beethoven masterpieces: the Egmont Overture, a reminder to audiences of the power and insistent rhythms of the 5th Symphony; and the towering Eroica Symphony, originally intended as a memorial to Bonaparte himself, but then renamed‘ Eroica’ following Beethoven’ s opposition to Napoleon declaring himself Emperor. The heroic scope of this symphony is often cited as the birth of 19th century Romanticism.
Pre-Concert Talk( 6.30pm to 7pm): Presented by Marios Papadopoulos and Peter Donohoe.
CONDUCTOR Marios Papadopoulos PIANO Peter Donohoe BEETHOVEN Egmont Overture, Op. 84
MENDELSSOHN Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 40 BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Eroica
ENGLISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Wednesday 21 December 2016, 7.30pm, Cheltenham Town Hall
ESO’ s Cheltenham debut features a trio of muchloved Viennese works, incorporating Mozart at his most turbulent, Beethoven at his most passionate and Haydn at his most dramatic. Under the baton of Kenneth Woods, the ESO has enjoyed a major artistic resurgence over the last few years. Together, they bring a thrilling programme showcasing the wild side of Vienna’ s Classical masters. James Brawn, whose survey of the complete Beethoven Sonatas has been hailed as one of the most important recording projects of recent years, brings his expertise and virtuosity to bear in Beethoven’ s fiery Third Piano Concerto. Either side of this pianistic tour-de-force is one of Haydn’ s finest mid-period symphonies, and- some would say- possibly Mozart’ s finest orchestral work, with its brooding and dramatic opening and final movements.
Pre-Concert Talk( 6.30pm to 7pm): Presented by conductor, Kenneth Woods.
CONDUCTOR Kenneth Woods PIANO James Brawn HAYDN Symphony No. 44 in E minor, Trauer( Morning)
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 MOZART Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K550
September 2016- June 2017 5