Archive

Here are some programmes, recordings and videos of our performances. In addition, a complete list of every piece we have performed since 1960 is on the repertoire page in a sortable table.

Many of the sound recordings in the archive were recorded at the Institute of Sound Recording at the University of Surrey by a student on the Tonmeister course.

Some more pictures were taken at a rehearsal in 2014 by Anatol Bologan.

Concert Saturday 16th March 2013 at 19:45

Langley Park Centre for the Performing Arts, South Eden Park Road, Beckenham BR3 3BP
Anton Bruckner

Anton Bruckner

Complete programme in PDF formatBruckner Symphony No. 8 Speaker symbol

The Eighth Symphony is a monumental work, full of the composer’s characteristic ‘trade marks’ but taking them further than ever before: a mysterious opening, dramatic climaxes and contrasts, a lively dancing scherzo, a heartfelt slow movement – he believed it was his best one – and finally a very powerful finale which brings it all together in a glorious blaze of triumph.

Allegro moderato

Scherzo. Allegro moderato - Trio, langsam

Adagio. Feierlich langsam, doch nicht schleppend

Finale. Fierlich, nicht schnell

Concert Saturday 26th January 2013 at 19:45

Langley Park Centre for the Performing Arts, South Eden Park Road, Beckenham BR3 3BP
Antonin Dvořák

Antonin Dvořák

Complete programme in PDF format

Suk Fairy Tales Speaker symbol

Mahler Rückert Lieder Speaker symbol
    Baritone Laurence Meikle

Dvořák Symphony No. 7 Speaker symbol

Suk’s Fairy Tale is a colourful suite of four movements drawn from music he wrote for a theatre piece. Mahler’s set of five songs, based on poems by Friedrich Rückert, share a mood of intimacy and quiet withdrawal. The Seventh Symphony, dramatic and darkly passionate and expressing the defiance of the underdog, is perhaps Dvořák’s greatest.

 

Concert Saturday 17th November 2012 at 7:45pm

Langley Park Centre for the Performing Arts, South Eden Park Road, Beckenham BR3 3BP

Concert dedicated to the memory of Malcolm Smith

Sir Edward Elgar

Sir Edward Elgar

Programme Nov 2012Bax ‘Tintagel’ Speaker symbol

Elgar Cello concerto Speaker symbol
    Soloist Jamie Walton

Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 2 (London) Speaker symbol

Bax’s best known work paints a vivid picture of the Cornish castle of Tintagel, battered by the Atlantic on a sunny day. Elgar’s wonderful concerto, contemplative and elegiac, has become a much loved cornerstone of the cello repertoire. The symphony depicts various London scenes, including the Westminster chimes, hansom cabs, street sellers’ cries, and the moods and tempos of our capital city.

Bax: Tintagel (Note: Closed captions are available by clicking "CC")

Elgar - Cello Concerto

Vaughan Williams

Summer Workshop - Sunday 10th June 2012

Langley Park School for Boys, South Eden Park Road, Beckenham BR3 3BP
Hans Rott

Hans Rott

Our Summer Workshop is an occasion when the orchestra spends a day rehearsing an interesting work then gives an early evening informal performance which audiences may attend at no charge, although a collection is made to help cover our costs. The rehearsal is open to non-member players (who should apply beforehand) and spectators, including (silent) children.

The work to be studied this year is the Symphony in E by Hans Rott, Speaker symbol a composer few people have encountered. He was a brilliant fellow student with Mahler, but sadly went mad and died at the age of 25. Mahler greatly admired this symphony, and his own symphonies, the first of which was written 8 years after Rott’s, show very strong influences. Anyone who appreciates Mahler’s music will enjoy this.

11:00 – 12.00 Strings only rehearsal

12:00 – 13:00 Full orchestra rehearsal

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch (Please bring your own picnic lunch - weather permitting, lunch can be eaten outside)

14.00 – 15.30 Rehearsal

15.30 – 16.00 Break

16.00 – 17.30 Rehearsal

17.30 – 18:00 Break

18:00 – 18.15 Introductory talk to audience with possible extracts

18.15 – 19.15 Performance

Concert Saturday 19th May 2012 at 7:45pm

Langley Park School for Boys, South Eden Park Road, Beckenham BR3 3BP
Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms

Programme May 2012Rossini Overture ‘William Tell’ Speaker symbol

Walton Two pieces from ‘Henry V’  Speaker symbol

Strauss Horn Concerto No. 2  Speaker symbol
    Soloist Richard Watkins

Massenet Méditation from Thaïs Speaker symbol
    Soloist Bernard Brook

Brahms Symphony No. 4  Speaker symbol

Rossini’s overture is very well known, not least for its galloping finale which became the ‘Lone Ranger’ theme music. Music for strings from Walton’s ‘Henry V’ film music calms things down. Strauss’s love for the horn shines though all his orchestral works, and particularly in this late concerto which needs a real virtuoso soloist. We conclude our season with this wonderful symphony, which has been a mainstay of the orchestral repertoire ever since it was written.

Rossini: Overture ‘William Tell’
Introduction

Overture

Walton: Two pieces from ‘Henry V’
Introduction

Henry V Suite 2 - Passacaglia: The Death of Falstaff

Henry V Suite 4 - Touch her soft lips and part

Richard Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 2
Introduction

Allegro

Andante con moto

Rondo (Allegro molto)

Massenet: Méditation from Thaïs
Introduction

Méditation

Bernard Brook tribute

Brahms: Symphony No. 4
Introduction

Allegro Non Troppo

Andante Moderato

Allegro Giocoso - Poco Meno Presto

Allegro Energico e Passionato - Più Allegro

Concert Saturday 17th March 2012 at 7:45pm

Ravens Wood School, Oakley Road, Bromley BR2 8HP
Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Programme Mar 2012Borodin Overture and Polovtsian Dances from ‘Prince Igor’ Speaker symbol

Beethoven Piano Concerto No 5 ‘The Emperor’ Speaker symbol
    Soloist Masa Tayama

Bartók Concerto for Orchestra Speaker symbol

Borodin’s wonderful music is very widely known, much of it having been adapted for use in lighter and popular genres, notably in the musical ‘Kismet’. For Beethoven’s most well loved piano concerto, we are delighted to welcome back Masa, whose previous appearances with us met with such enormous acclaim. Bartók certainly puts the various sections of the orchestra through their paces in his showpiece concerto, a true 20th Century classic.

Concert Saturday 21st January 2012 at 7:45pm

Ravens Wood School, Oakley Road, Bromley BR2 8HP
Hector Berlioz

Hector Berlioz

Programme Jan 2012Walton ‘Crown Imperial’ Speaker symbol

Elgar ‘Sospiri’ Speaker symbol

Arnold Clarinet Concerto No. 2 Speaker symbol
    Soloist Hale Hambleton

Berlioz ‘Symphonie Fantastique’ Speaker symbol

For 2012, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year, we open with Walton’s 1937 coronation march. The poignant ‘Sospiri’ (sighs) cools the mood, ready to be revived by Arnold’s jazzy concerto, originally written for Benny Goodman. In 1830 Berlioz took the musical world into new realms with his vivid picture of passionate but unrequited love that eventually turns into a wild nightmare.

Saturday 12th November 2011 at 7:45pm

Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt		 Programme Nov 2011Elgar ‘Pomp & Circumstance March No. 4' Click to hear a sample from a commercial recording of this work

Barber ‘Adagio for Strings’  Click to hear a sample from a commercial recording of this work

Liszt Symphonic Poem ‘Tasso’  Click to hear a sample from a commercial recording of this work

Elgar ‘Violin Concerto'  Click to hear a sample from a commercial recording of this work
    Soloist Sasha Rozhdestvensky

We celebrate Liszt’s 2011 bicentenary with one of his great tone poems. Barber’s well-loved Adagio was originally part of his second string quartet. But we begin and end with Elgar. This march is less familiar than the famous No 1, but no less memorable. The Violin Concerto, premiered in 1910, gained immediate popularity and has remained a firm favourite on concert programmes ever since.

Saturday 21st May 2011 at 7:45pm

Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius		 Programme May 2011Schubert ‘Symphony No. 8’ (Unfinished) Click to hear a sample from a commercial recording of this work

Paul Creston ‘Marimba Concertino’  Click to hear a sample from a commercial recording of this work
    Soloist Alexander Main-Ian

Sibelius ‘Symphony No.2'  Click to hear a sample from a commercial recording of this work

This Schubert symphony has remained one of the most well loved in the concert repertoire in what seems a perfect unfinished state, though others have tried to complete it. Creston’s Concertino is distinctly tonal in the modern American idiom and possessed of a strong rhythmic sense. Sibelius’s Second is by far the most popular of his symphonies. Its style is characteristic Sibelius, with marvellous dark-hued sonorities, expansive brass chorales, passionate expressiveness, and at the end, with screwed up tension leading to a glorious triumphant conclusion.

Saturday 19th March 2011 at 7:45pm

Carl Nielsen
Carl Nielsen		 Complete programme in PDF formatWalton ‘Spitfire Prelude and Fugue’  Click to hear a sample from a commercial recording of this work

Sibelius ‘Violin Concerto’  Click to hear a sample from a commercial recording of this work
    Soloist Anna-Liisa Bezrodny

Nielsen ‘Symphony No.5’   Click to hear a sample from a commercial recording of this work

The opening item comes from Walton’s music written for the 1942 film ‘The First of the Few’. Sibelius’s only concerto, in turn stormy and tense, quiet and lyrical, and with a dazzling dancing finale, demands forceful dramatic playing from the soloist. Nielsen’s Fifth, widely regarded as his greatest masterpiece, portrays conflict with disturbing but exhilarating power: the contrast between darkness and light, ominous militarism and peace, evil and good, which eventually leads to an affirmative conclusion.

Pages

LinkedIn logo Facebook logo Twitter logo