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).
Mozart Flute Concerto No.1 in G major Soloist Philip Rowson
Strauss ‘Till Eulenspiegel’
Schumann’s “Rhenish” is perhaps his brightest and most optimistic work. Its tunefulness and folk-like character quickly made it one of his greatest successes and its popularity has endured to the present day. Despite Mozart’s well known claim to dislike the flute, he wrote very well for it, including this delightful concerto. Strauss’s tone poem chronicles the misadventures and pranks of a mischievous German peasant folk-hero. We hear him upsetting market stalls, poking fun at the clergy, flirting with girls and mocking academics. But eventually he is captured and sentenced to death for blasphemy!
Mahler Symphony No.9 This intensely romantic symphony has long been regarded as Mahler’s swansong – his farewell to life. He had been told by his doctor that he had a fatal heart condition. The mystery of death had always preoccupied him, but now it was within sight. The music powerfully expresses his torment, but also affirms his unquenched belief in life. The symphony follows the pattern of Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique”, ending with an impassioned slow movement.
Rodrigo ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ SoloistEurico Pereira (Guitar)
Respighi ‘Roman Festivals’
This programme burns with Mediterranean heat and passion, opening with an exuberant overture, one of Berlioz’s most popular works. Ravel’s Spanish “Rapsodie” has three short movements of sensuous colour and elegance and a dazzling finale. Staying in Spain, the Rodrigo is perhaps the most well known of all guitar concertos, especially its evocative slow movement. Respighi said that “Roman Festivals”, his vivid celebration of ancient Rome, represented his absolute peak of orchestral sonority and colour. It’s certainly that!
In a programme of romantic Russian music, what could be more romantic than this lovely concerto, familar even to non-classical music lovers through its use in the classic film “Brief Encounter”? Before that,”Hamlet” captures the many moods of the Bard’s great play. In Rimsky-Korsakov’s colourful suite, based on the age-old “Tales of 1001 Nights”, the solo violin represents Scheherazade as she tells a series of enthralling stories that will spare her life.
We ran a day’s workshop on Richard Strauss’s epic ‘Alpine Symphony’ at Bishop Justus School. Given its scale and complex scoring, this was not a work that we could ever afford to include in a concert performance, but this was a wonderful opportunity to play this Strauss masterpiece. We spent the day working on it with Adrian before an informal performance in the early evening, which was open to the public.
Adrian introduced the work at 5.50pm, followed by an informal performance at about 6.10pm(ending around 7pm).
The session was free, but donations were welcome; no tickets were issued.
Holst ‘The Planets’ Suite with the choir of Newstead Woods School
Bax’s tone poem dramatically portrays the Cornish castle, high above rocks, battered by the waves. Its Celtic flavour hints at the legend of King Arthur. Sir Malcolm Arnold was a prolific composer, who wrote in many genres including music for over 100 films, winning an Oscar for ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ and an Ivor Novello Award for ‘Inn of the Sixth Happiness’. Holst’s ‘Planets’ Suite was described by him as ‘a series of mood pictures’, and is based on astrological ideas. It uses a huge orchestra, sometimes with enormous power and sometimes with extreme delicacy, making a splendid sonic spectacular conclusion to our season.
Dvořák wrote some highly colourful symphonic poems, which graphically illustrate rather grisly stories. The Mendelssohn concerto is rightfully one of the most loved of all concertos. The symphony opens dramatically with a foreboding ‘fate’ motif which leads us through gloom, melancholy and recovery to a joyous finale based on Russian folksong.
Strauss Duett-Concertino soloists – Massimo Roman (clarinet) & Stephen Fuller (bassoon)
BrucknerSymphony No. 7
Schubert wrote much charming, tuneful music in his short life and this overture shows both these qualities. Strauss’s solo clarinet masquerades as a princess and the bassoon as a bear who turns into a prince when they dance together. Bruckner’s symphonies are like magnificent cathedrals in splendour, the famous slow movement of the Seventh being a glorious tribute to his idol, Wagner.
Delius(ed A Summers) The Walk to the Paradise Garden
Bloch ‘Schelomo‘ – Hebraic Rhapsody solo cello – Alice McVeigh
ElgarSymphony No. 2
The season opens with Delius’s seductive and melodious ‘Walk’, a perennial concert hall favourite. In ‘Schelomo’, Bloch personifies the cello as the reincarnated voice of King Solomon, giving the virtuoso soloist a magnificent emotional range. Our symphony celebrates the 150th birthday of arguably this country’s greatest composer with his wonderful evocation of Edwardian England.
This work is a major landmark in the musical world. Its first performance in 1913 caused a riot, but it has now taken its rightful place as a staple part of the symphony orchestra repertoire.
It would be very difficult to include Stravinsky’s ballet masterpiece in our formal concert series, as the stage area will not accommodate the forces required (including quintuple woodwind, eight horns, five trumpets, two timpani players etc). We took the opportunity to work on it with our conductor Adrian Brown on Sunday 10th June.
We rehearsed over several sessions during the day, and the final session was open to the public. Adrian introduced the work at 5.30pm, followed by an informal performance at about 6pm(ending around 6.30). The hall was set up “in the round” to enable us to accommodate the resources required and to allow the audience to get up close to the action!
The session was free, but donations were welcome; no tickets were issued.
Leoncavallo I Pagliacci – Prologue soloist: Edward Grint
Wagner Ride of the Valkyries & Die Walküre Act 3 extracts soloists: Christine Teare and Sir Donald McIntyre
This concert depicts storms – of emotions in Leoncavallo’s tragedy; of the elements pictured by Berlioz around the troubled romance of Dido and Aeneas; of domestic intrigue and upheaval in Figaro; and of the passions of Wagner’s Gods and warrior-maidens. But it also portrays the calm of emotion spent. A spectacular conclusion to our musical season.
Beethoven portrays a heroic struggle for freedom from Spanish religious oppression in the Netherlands. Bliss lived through the upheavals of world wars, holding fast to his optimism. Brahms took up the challenge of Beethoven, in a symphony of titanic conflict, resolved in a blaze of light.
Bromley Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the financial support of The Bliss Trust for this performance of the Bliss Violin concerto. Fans of the composer may also be interested in the activities of the Bliss Society.
Rachmaninov’s great symphony has a gloriously rich sound of broad tunes, with passionate declamation. Wagner’s early opera celebrated the life of 14th century Roman populist leader Rienzi on the grandest scale. By contrast, Haydn offers a joyful and radiant concerto.
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 K488 soloist: Tracey Renwick
Shostakovich Symphony No. 10
Shostakovich’s symphony was in part a public reaction to Stalin’s death, and in other ways an enigmatic and private work entwining personal mottos from an emotional relationship. Its dramatic power is complemented by Strauss’s brilliant tone-poem, and the sublime intimate melodies of Mozart’s concerto.
Why does some music gain universal popularity and fame? Great tunes, freshness, vitality, romance, drama – all are shown in this concert. Grieg’s spirited portrayal of the adventures of ‘Peer Gynt’ is among the most played orchestral music. Mozart’s humour and high spirits in a showpiece for the French horn has immediate appeal. And on every hearing, the revolutionary drama of Beethoven ‘Eroica’ strikes the listener anew with the shock of a journey from tragedy to triumph.
The idea of this very colourful orchestration of Bach’s great organ work came from a meeting between Elgar and Richard Strauss. After the death of his wife in 1920, many believed that Elgar’s inspiration had faded. However, reviewing the sketches for Elgar’s unfinished last symphony, Anthony Payne found the music ‘leapt from the page’ for his acclaimed and deeply satisfying completion which he will be introducing at this concert. We celebrate Payne’s own 70th birthday with a performance of his serene work, which was inspired by Delius’s ‘In a Summer Garden’.
Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1 soloist – Alex Afia
Tchaikovsky “The Nutcracker” Ballet – Act 2
Sibelius’s overture tells a story from Finland’s epic poem ‘The Kalevala’ in which an old magician tries to woo an alluring, beautiful maiden. We welcome Shostakovich’s Centenary year with this concerto, which begins darkly with driving energy, and after a subdued slow movement with one of his warmest melodies, ends in a festive finale. By contrast Tchaikovsky’s ‘Nutcracker’ offers a fairy tale entertainment with charming and popular dance music.
with “The Carroll Singers” and Trinity Boys’ Choir mezzo soprano – Miriam Power
In Mahler’s romantic vision ‘a symphony is like the world, it must contain everything’. His third symphony, written at his retreat in the Austrian Alps in 1893-4, was first titled ‘A Summer Morning’s Dream’ and is a wonderful orchestral pageant of nature and human experience. It includes a sublime movement for soloist and chorus, and ends in an exultant finale ‘What Love Tells Me’.
Le Corsair is a concert showpiece, with the swashbuckling pirate, swift and brilliant in adventure, calmed with beautiful expressive melody, providing images of Berlioz’s own passionate personality.In more reflective style, Brahms’s Violin Concerto is full again of lovely melody and rich orchestration, in a work written for his great friend and adviser Joseph Joachim. Finally, a world away in war-torn Soviet Russia, written by Prokofiev in 1944 the Symphony No.5 is a glittering and heroic work, full of sharp wit and flowing song-lines, contending with powerful external forces.
