Berlioz and Schumann

Thursday 18 January 2024

Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30

Berlioz Overture to Béatrice et Bénédict

Berlioz Les nuits d’été, Op. 7

Schumann Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61

Sophie Bevan soprano

Ryan Wigglesworth conductor

‘Drums and trumpets in C have been blaring in my head,’ wrote Robert Schumann in 1845, ‘I have no idea what will come of it.’ What came of it was the symphony we know as Schumann’s Second – a defiant, joyous and spiritually uplifting work that shared its key, its power and its rigour with the ‘Great’ symphony by Schubert (heard

Tickets £48 £38 £28 £15 (students from £5)

15 December) that helped inspire it. Before Schumann’s symphony Ryan Wigglesworth and Sophie Bevan delve into the extraordinary musical imagination of Hector Berlioz courtesy of the thrilling overture to his Shakespearean opera and his delectable songs on the theme of love passionate, unrequited and lost.

Elgar Cello Concerto

Saturday 27 January 2024

Sheldonian Theatre, 19:30

Vaughan Williams The Wasps Overture

Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85

Sullivan Overture Di Ballo

Delius Summer Night on the River

Haydn Wood London Landmarks

Coates Cinderella

Leonard Elschenbroich cello

John Wilson conductor

John Wilson brings his conducting wizardry to bear on some of the British music closest to his heart. Punctuated with buzzing overtures by Vaughan Williams and Sullivan, we hear orchestral pictures of Nelson’s Column, Horse Guards Parade and more from Haydn Wood; a serene interlude from Delius and Eric Coates’s London reimagining of the Cinderella story, the piece he considered ‘the best thing I have done’. At the heart of the concert is Leonard Elschenbroich’s performance of Elgar’s hard-hitting Cello Concerto, a work of brittle but beauteous lyricism that would herald the end of the age of innocence with passion and anger.

Tickets £54 £40 £30 £18 (students from £5)