Archive

These pages contain programmes and recordings of most of our recent performances. In addition, a list of every piece we have performed since 1960 is on the repertoire page and a history of the orchestra is on the about page.

Many of the sound recordings in this archive were recorded by students on the Tonmeister course at the University of Surrey, for which we are very grateful. Note that explicit approval is required for any photography or recordings, since we must have the consent of everyone involved and pay any extra fees incurred.

Click the programme covers to download the complete programme in PDF format. You can use a browser plugin such as Video & Audio Downloader to download audio and video recordings (start playing the recording to make it appear in the list).

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Saturday 14th March 2020 at 19:30

Programme Mar 2020Prokofiev

Maunders Bacchanale Speaker symbol
Tippett Five Spirituals and The Weeping Babe Speaker symbol
     Sine Nomine choir – musical director Jonny Davies

Tippett Double String Concerto Speaker symbol

Prokofiev Symphony No 5 Speaker symbol

The March concert opens with the Syrian-influenced Bacchanal by Florence Anna Maunders (from our composers competition). This is followed by Tippett’s joyful Concerto for Double String  Orchestra, his most popular work, with hints of Bartók, folk idioms and the blues. Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony concludes. (The composer: ‘a hymn to Man’s noble spirit – it filled my soul.’)

Maunders – Bacchanale

Saturday 25th January 2020 at 19:30

Programme Nov 2019TchaikovskyMozart Overture to The Magic Flute Speaker symbol

Vaughan Williams Symphony No 6 Speaker symbol

Tchaikovsky 3rd Orchestral Suite  Speaker symbol

Our second concert begins with Mozart’s effervescent Overture to the Magic Flute, followed by Vaughan Williams’ deeply felt Sixth Symphony. The programme concludes with Tchaikovsky’s vivid and lyrical Third Orchestral Suite.

Mozart

Vaughan Williams

Tchaikovsky Mov 1

Tchaikovsky Mov 2

Tchaikovsky Mov 3

Tchaikovsky Mov 4 (partial)

Saturday 9th November 2019 at 19:30

ADRIAN BROWN 40TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

Programme Nov 2019Adrian Brown

Berlioz Le Corsaire Overture Speaker symbol
Brahms Violin Concerto Speaker symbol
Soloist Michael Foyle

Senter Proem Speaker symbol

Sibelius Symphony No 5 Speaker symbol

To launch Adrian Brown’s 40th Season with Bromley Symphony Orchestra, the programme for our first concert is a repeat of Adrian’s first concert with us in 1980. Berlioz’s thrillingly vital overture Le Corsaire is followed by Brahms’ eloquent Violin Concerto, with Michael Foyle, one of the UK’s finest violinists, as soloist. The only departure from the 1980 concert is the glowing work Proem composed by John Senter, an old friend of Adrian’s, from our composers’ competition. We conclude this celebration with Sibelius’ expansive and aspirational Fifth Symphony.

Saturday 18th May 2019 at 19:45

Centenary FinaleProgramme May 2019Beethoven

National Anthem (arr. Britten)

Parry Blest Pair of Sirens Speaker symbol

Muilwijk Europa  Speaker symbol (The winning work in our Centenary Composers’ Competition)

Beethoven Symphony No 9 in D minor Speaker symbol
    with The BYMT Adult Choir
    Soloists Janice Watson, John Upperton, Tristan Hambleton, Nicola Ihnatowicz

The winning work in our Centenary Composers Competition and Beethoven’s tumultuous and transcendent final symphony bring our Centenary season to a glorious end.

Beethoven – Symphony No. 9

Saturday 16th March 2019 at 19:45

Programme March 2019Richard Strauss
Elgar
Cockaigne Overture Speaker symbol

Reed Symphony for Strings

Strauss Ein Heldenleben  Speaker symbol

Elgar’s rollicking recreation of Edwardian London leads into the tuneful Symphony for Strings by his friend, the long-term LSO leader and Bromley Symphony conductor William (‘Billy’) Reed.  Ein Heldenleben, Strauss’ autobiographical, lavishly romantic and richly-textured tone poem, showcases our own leader, Andrew Laing, in the second half.

Reed – Symphony for Strings

Saturday 26th January 2019 at 19:45

Programme Jan 2019John LillMozart Symphony No 32 in G Major  Speaker symbol

Beethoven Piano Concerto No 1 in C major 
    Soloist John Lill

Mahler Symphony No 1 in D major  

Mozart’s small-but-perfectly-formed Symphony 32 precedes the internationally renowned John Lill, who joins us in Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto. Then, Mahler’s monumental First Symphony (the ‘Titan’), which exemplifies his comment: ‘To write a symphony is, for me, to construct a world.’

Mahler Symphony No 1 in D major

Saturday 10th November 2018 at 19:45

Programme Nov 2018Nicholas McCarthyArmistice Centenary Concert

Brahms Tragic Overture Speaker symbol

Butterworth A Shropshire Lad Speaker symbol

Ravel Piano Concerto for Left Hand Speaker symbol
     Soloist Nicholas McCarthy

Elgar Symphony No 2 in E flat major  Speaker symbol

In our Armistice Centenary concert, Brahms’ arresting Tragic Overture is followed by Butterworth’s nostalgically lyrical ‘A Shropshire Lad’, written in the shadow of WWI. Ravel’s jazzy and virtuosic Concerto for the Left Hand follows – commissioned by a pianist who lost an arm in the conflict. After the interval we present Elgar’s Second Symphony, composed, as he put it, ‘at fever heat’, one of his most impassioned, intense, and inspiring works.

Composition Competition

Composing with quillOur composition competition has now ended and the winner is:

Europa by Marco Muilwijk

This work will be performed as part of our May 2019 concert.

We are very grateful to our adjudicator Paul Patterson for the many hours he donated to this project.

The orchestra members voted for Bacchanal by Florence Anna Maunders and we will perform this in March 2020. Proem by John Senter will be performed in our November 2019 concert.

We received more than 30 entries, thank you! We are very grateful for the considerable time and effort that went into preparing each of them.

The other shortlisted finalists were:

  • Bromleag by Robert Ely
  • Kent Invicta by Philip Steel

The rehearsal recordings made of each of the finalist’s works are below.

Europa by Marco Muilwijk

Bacchanal by Florence Anna Maunders

Proem by John Senter

Bromleag by Robert Ely

Kent Invicta by Philip Steel

Saturday 19th May 2018 at 19:45

Programme May 2018PlanetsBernstein Overture ‘Candide’ 

Roy Harris Symphony No 3

Holst Suite ‘The Planets’ 

Following Bernstein’s scintillatingly offbeat overture to Candide, we present an underrated masterpiece, Harris’ magnificently energetic, occasionally brooding yet always glorious (single-movement) Third Symphony. We follow this with the mercurial Holst’s self-described ‘mood pictures’ – his Herculean tour de force, The Planets.

Bernstein Overture ‘Candide’

Roy Harris Symphony No 3

Holst Suite ‘The Planets’

Saturday 10th Mar 2018 at 19:45

Programme Mar 2018Anna-Liisa Bezrodny

Smetana Overture: ‘The Bartered Bride’ Speaker symbol

Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Speaker symbol
    Soloist Anna-Liisa Bezrodny

Shostakovich Symphony No. 15 Speaker symbol

Smetana’s Bartered Bride overture is sheer orchestral effervescence – with a Slavic twist. Tchaikovsky’s eloquent violin concerto features prizewinning violinist Anna-Liisa Bezrodny on her Amati violin. The second half consists of one of Shostakovich’s quirky masterpieces, his 15th symphony. Side-swiped excerpts from William Tell in the first movement, evocative violin and cello solos and ghostly brass chorales in the second, plus a sardonic scherzo, are superseded by a finale echoing some of the most stirring moments from Wagner’s Ring and a sense of utter completion.