Paul Lewis Schubert Cycle Programme II

Paul Lewis piano

Schubert Piano Sonata No.15 in C major D.840

Schubert Piano Sonata No.13 in A major D.664

Schubert Piano Sonata No.16 in A minor D.845

Paul Lewis – “arguably the finest Schubert interpreter of his generation” (Gramophone) – continues his immersion in the piano sonatas. Each piece contains a world of emotion from unfettered joy to dark introspection. The elegance and sure-footed musicality of Lewis’ performances, the vivid colour palette he draws from the piano and an ever-evolving imaginative approach ensure he is an ideal guide to these jewels of the piano repertoire.

Tickets £11 - £28* | Presented by Saffron Hall

Supported by Chris Shennan in memory of Miranda

Fri 6 October 7pm

Roomful of Teeth

Caroline Shaw The Isle

Missy Mazzoli Vesper Sparrow

Angélica Negrón math, the one which is sweet

Caroline Shaw Partita for 8 Voices

From the USA, an astonishing, Grammy-winning vocal ensemble like no other, pulling at the extremities of emotion through the limitless colour palette of the human voice. In one of only two UK appearances this year, they bring the most imaginative of contemporary vocal music by female composers – richly coloured, dramatic, playful and startlingly original.

Tickets £12 - £22* | Cabaret table seating | Presented by Saffron Hall

This concert is part of a series supported by the Padfield Family

*prices include £1 booking fee per ticket

Sat 7 October 3pm

Connaught Brass Young Artist Concert

Mogens Andresen Prelude & Reinlendere from 3 Norwegian Dances

Arr. Steven Verhelst Suite from Pulcinella 2.0

Price arr. Robyn Blair Adoration

Ewald Quintet No.2 Op.6

This virtuosic British brass quintet harness the delicate intimacy of chamber music and the rich toned power reminiscent of a full brass band. They are making waves at home and abroad; after prestige appearances at the Lucerne Festival and the Wigmore Hall they return with a characteristically bold and vibrant programme, from folk-tinged miniatures from Northern Europe to the lush Romanticism of the African-American Florence Price.

Tickets £11 - £13* | Under 25 tickets free | Cabaret table seating

Presented by Saffron Hall

Sat 7 October 7.30pm

An Audience with Henry Blofeld Thoughts & Talks

Adored as the voice of English cricket, ‘Blowers’ brings his wit and wisdom to the stage. This is the story of a colourful life behind and away from the commentary booth, as well as his behind the scenes of the real Marigold Hotel experience as seen on TV, told in his own inimitable irrepressible style. There are enough irreverent anecdotes and meandering digressions to fill many a Test Match Special rain break. A special evening in the company of a quintessential Englishman and of the great raconteurs.

Tickets £18 - £26* | Cabaret table seating

Presented by Saffron Hall in association with Clive Conway Productions

*prices include £1 booking fee per ticket

Sun 8 October 7pm

Aurora Orchestra & Manu Delago

Aurora Orchestra

Manu Delago director/hang

Programme to include

Anna Thorvalsdottir Illumine

Manu Delago Newton’s Rainbow

Manu Delago Environ Us

Pioneering virtuoso percussionist collaborates with Aurora Orchestra for the first live orchestrated performance of his stunning 2021 audiovisual album Environ Me, weaving his trademark acoustic instruments with field recordings of the natural world and electronica. Environ Us is preceded by music exploring our relationship with light, from seventeenth-century England to twenty-first-century Iceland and Delago’s radiant, euphoric Newton’s Rainbow.

Tickets £20 - £38* | Presented by Saffron Hall

Sat 14 October 7.30pm

Britten Sinfonia with Elizabeth Watts

Britten Sinfonia

Elizabeth Watts soprano

Ryan Latimer New work

Finzi Dies Natalis

Dobrinka Tabakova Barbican Glade

Richard Blackford Songs of Turmoil

Elgar Serenade for Strings

‘One of the most beautiful voices Britain has produced in a generation’ (International Record Review), soprano Elizabeth Watts joins Britten Sinfonia to perform Finzi’s charming song cycle celebrating the joy and innocence of a baby’s view of the world. Richard Blackford’s new songs set powerfully moving poems of love, longing and fury by Afghan writer Nadia Anjuman, whose courageous life was tragically cut short when she was killed, aged 25, by her husband.

Tickets £13 - £31* | Presented by Britten Sinfonia

*prices include £1 booking fee per ticket

Fri 20 October 7pm

English Touring Opera

Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea

Robin Norton-Hale director

Basia Bin´kowska designer

Yshani Perinpanayagam conductor

Jessica Cale Poppea

Feargal Mostyn-Williams Ottone

Kezia Bienek Ottavia

Martha Jones Nerone

With music and characterisation which still feel strikingly modern, Monteverdi’s darkly troubling depiction of violence and intrigue at the court of the Emperor Nero was one of the first operatic masterpieces. Multi-genre musician and composer Yshani

Perinpanayagam conducts a new arrangement of the score, with an English translation of the libretto from poet and classicist Helen Eastman.

Performed in English with English surtitles.

Tickets £15 - £49* | Presented by Saffron Hall in association with English Touring Opera

Supported by a Circle of Donors

Sat 21 October 7pm

English Touring Opera Rossini’s Cinderella

Jenny Ogilvie director

Basia Bin´kowska designer

Naomi Woo conductor

Esme Bronwen-Smith Angelina

Joseph Doody Prince Ramiro

Arshak Kuzikyan Don Magnifico

Nazan Fikret Clorinda

Lauren Young Tisbe

On the surface Rossini’s opera is a vivacious retelling of the Cinderella story, complete with a murderously wicked stepfather and astonishingly virtuosic vocal parts for Angelina – Cinderella –and the Prince Ramiro. However beneath the wholesome moral triumph of goodness and kindness lurks a more biting commentary on status and desire.

Performed in English with English surtitles.

Tickets £15 - £49* | Presented by Saffron Hall in association with English Touring Opera Supported by a Circle of Donors

Sun 22 October 4pm

Brodsky Quartet & Friends

Brodsky Quartet

Luba Tunnicliffe viola

Richard Tunnicliffe cello

Leon Bosch double bass

Mozart Quintet No.5 in D major Richard Strauss arr. Leopold

Metamorphosen

Tchaikovsky Souvenir de Florence

Two great European cities, two string chamber music masterpieces. Tchaikovsky’s joyous sun-kissed memento of his cherished time in Italy and Strauss’ lament for his beloved Munich are separated by over half a century and are emotionally worlds apart. But these two sextets are linked by impassioned directness and sumptuous, romantic string-writing.

Tickets £13 - £27* | Presented by Saffron Hall

Sun 29 October 4pm

Brighouse & Rastrick Band

Brighouse & Rastrick Band are current British Open Brass Band champions and one of the most distinguished brass bands in the world. They bring their distinctive sound, tight-knit precision and virtuoso soloists to a wide-ranging programme encompassing brass band classics, popular medleys, arrangements and solo show-stoppers.

Tickets £18 - £38* | Presented by Saffron Hall

Thu 2 November 7pm

An Evening with Simon Armitage

‘His verse is immediate, entertaining, engaged with the world.’ – Independent on Sunday. Join Poet Laureate Simon Armitage as he reads a wide-ranging selection of his work including new poems. He will answer questions from the audience and sign books afterwards.

Tickets £10 - £25* | Age guidance 11+ | Presented by Saffron Hall

Fri 3 November 7.30pm

Hallé Orchestra Brahms Symphony No.4

Hallé Orchestra

Sir Mark Elder conductor

Rimsky-Korsakov Tale of the Tsar Saltan

Ravel Mother Goose Suite

Brahms Symphony No.4

The culmination of a 19th-century symphonic odyssey, and music based on legends and fairy tales make for a captivating programme displaying the full kaleidoscope of orchestral colour.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s vignettes from his fantastical opera and Ravel’s exquisite ballet set pulses racing and touch the heart. The emotional temperature remains high in the noble grandeur of Brahms’ final symphony, contained within a breathtakingly original framework

Tickets £25 - £60* | Presented by Saffron Hall

Supported by Hugh & Susan Feldman

Sat 4 November 3pm

Out of this World A Family Concert

Hallé Orchestra

Euan Shields conductor

Ruth Rosales presenter

Including music from Star Wars, Angry Birds, Stravinsky’s Firebird and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake

A family concert that travels into galaxies far far away. Featuring excerpts from the most famous space soundtrack of them all – Star Wars

– there are also awe-inspiring sounds from 2001: A Space Odyssey and, closer to home, musical portraits of myths and legends from our own planet. An unforgettable journey powered by the thrilling sounds of a full symphony orchestra.

Tickets £11 - £25* | Age Guidance 4+ | Presented by Saffron Hall

*prices include £1 booking fee per ticket

Sun 5 November 4pm

Arcangelo & Nicolas Altstaedt

Arcangelo

Jonathan Cohen conductor

Nicolas Altstaedt cello

CPE Bach Sinfonia in E minor Wq 178

WF Bach Sinfonia in F major BR C 2 / Fk.67

Haydn Cello Concerto No.1 in C major

Boccherini Cello Concerto No.3 in G major G.480

Nicolas Altstaedt is a cellist of dynamic flair and vivid imagination, and in the period ensemble orchestra Arcangelo he finds an ideal sparring partner for Boccherini’s delightful concertos, with their mixture of suave elegance and zest for life. Arcangelo frame them with music from the same period including Haydn’s symphony with its poignant, theatrical sting in the tail.

Tickets £16 - £45* | Presented by Saffron Hall

Supported by an anonymous donor

Fri 10 November 7.30pm

Gigspanner Big Band & Raynor Winn Saltlines

Gigspanner Big Band Raynor Winn narrator

A celebration of the South-West Coast Path in old songs and new words. Taking inspiration from the best-selling memoir The Salt Path, Raynor Winn’s brand new compositions combine seamlessly with folk songs of love, loss and the natural world in a stunning collaboration between the author and The Gigspanner Big Band, a collective of some of the biggest names on the folk-roots scene.

Tickets £20 - £32* | Presented by Saffron Hall

Haydn Symphony No.45 “Farewell” *prices include £1 booking fee per ticket

Gigspanner Big Band

Sat 11 November 7.30pm

Víkingur Ólafsson Goldberg Variations

Víkingur Ólafsson piano

Bach Goldberg Variations

“Olafsson is revitalising classical music” enthused the Economist recently and the star Icelandic pianist’s combination of profound musical intelligence with a spirit of adventure is drawing new audiences to the world of the piano through scintillating, imaginative performances of music old and new. Bringing his precision, fire and ingenuity to Bach’s masterpiece is an enticing prospect indeed.

Tickets £16 - £36* | Presented by Saffron Hall

Supported by Ruth Jones

Sun 12 November 4pm

Nigel Kennedy & Oxford Philharmonic

Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra

Nigel Kennedy violin/director

Anna-Liisa Bezrodny violin

Clara Dent oboe

Bach Violin Concerto No.1 in A minor

Bach Violin Concerto No.2 in E major

Bach Concerto for 2 Violins

Bach Concerto for Violin and Oboe

The great British violin virtuoso, as thrillingly direct and searchingly creative as ever, turns his attention to one of his musical first loves, the music of Bach. The solo and double violin concertos are a seamless thread of invention and rhythmic vitality wrapped around the famous slow central movements. Directing Oxford Philharmonic and duetting with their star principals, Nigel Kennedy presents a survey of the violin concertos, some of the composer’s best-loved instrumental music.

Tickets £26 - £66* | Presented by Saffron Hall

Supported by the Lewis family & friends in memory of Geoffrey Lewis & Nigel Brown

*prices include £1 booking fee per ticket

Fri 17 November 7.30pm

YolanDa Brown

Award-winning saxophonist YolanDa Brown brings her delicious fusion of reggae, jazz and soul. She has toured with artists such as The Temptations, Jools Holland and Billy Ocean and is currently composing music for the iconic Sesame Street. She was awarded an OBE for services to music, music education and broadcasting in the 2023 New Year Honours List. A BAFTA nominated broadcaster, you would have seen her on TV shows like Celebrity Mastermind or Portrait Artist of the Year. Join YolanDa Brown and her band for some sunshine music.

Tickets £16 - £32* | Presented by Saffron Hall | Part of Cambridge Jazz Festival

Sat 18 November 7.30pm

Saffron Walden Choral Society

Elgar: Dream of Gerontius

Saffron Walden Choral Society

Chameleon Arts Orchestra

Quintin Beer conductor

Catherine Hopper mezzo-soprano

Mark Wilde tenor

Sam Evans baritone

Elgar was inspired to write this moving choral and orchestral music after reading the poem by Cardinal Newman. The poem and Elgar’s music follow the story of Gerontius approaching death and of his soul’s journey to meet his guardian Angel and face the judgement of God. On the way he meets choruses of angels and of demons. Eventually he is taken to purgatory before attaining everlasting glory.

Tickets £19 - £33* | Presented by Saffron Walden Choral Society

*prices include £1 booking fee per ticket

Sat 25 November 7.30pm