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Ulster Orchestra's 2025 Season: A Symphony of Nature, Drama, and Iconic Melodies
The Ulster Orchestra's 2025 season promises a rich tapestry of musical experiences, from the cosmic landscapes of 'The Great Outdoors' to the dramatic flair of 'Flame of Genius', and the nostalgic journeys of 'Essentially Broadway'. Each event is meticulously crafted to captivate audiences, featuring world-class soloists, conductors, and breathtaking compositions that span genres and centuries. Whether it's the symphonic storytelling of Haydn or the filmic majesty of Hans Zimmer and John Williams, this season offers something for every music aficionado.
Feb 22, 2025
Share1. The Great Outdoors
Charles Ives described the opening of The Unanswered Question as a ‘cosmic landscape’ and this concert is very much rooted in landscapes of all types, from Ives’s exploration of the human spirit’s connection to the realm of nature to the pastoral idyll of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony. Gavin Higgins’s Horn Concerto was written for our soloist, Ben Goldscheider, and is inspired by the Forest of Dean, where Higgins grew up. There are echoes of hunting calls and Wagner in a work that finishes with a movement uniquely inspired by the forest floor and titled Mycelium Rondo.
Feb 28, 2025
Ulster Orchestra
Belfast · Ulster Hall
2. Flame of Genius
Writing in The Guardian, Sir Stephen Hough’s reflections on Brahms’s First Piano Concerto conjure up the fire, intimacy, romance and drama of this phenomenal concerto, one that feels like it contains a whole cosmos in its three movements. It’s paired with a symphony by another composer whose works contain musical universes, Bruckner, as we explore his Symphony No.1.
Mar 14, 2025
Ulster Orchestra
Belfast
3. Presenting: Essentially Broadway
Take a journey from nostalgic musicals such as Oklahoma!, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera up to more recent productions with songs from Wicked, Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Hamilton, Waitress and many more.
Mar 22, 2025
Ulster Orchestra
Belfast · Waterfront Hall
4. April in Paris
It’s Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire falling in love in Funny Face. It’s Catherine Deneuve beneath the cheerfully coloured Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It’s Audrey Tautou as a waitress helping others find happiness in Amélie. Fiona Monbet conducts and performs her own work, Faubourg 23, written for jazz ensemble and orchestra; a celebration of both jazz and symphonic music that sits in a lineage that flows from Stephane Grappelli and is effervescent, uplifting and full of the joys of spring in Paris!
Apr 4, 2025
Ulster Orchestra
Belfast · Ulster Hall
5. Music for Good Friday
Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ is a deep, contemplative drama based on the events leading up to the crucifixion and the earthquake that marked the moment of Jesus’s death. The music pulls us into an ominous and unsettled world; a lament at the foot of the cross. Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen for strings is another lament, this time for the destruction wrought in Munich in World War II and the shattering of cultural life as the composer knew it. Full of loss and anguish – but also serenity and majesty – this is music for meditation and reflection this Good Friday.
Apr 18, 2025
Ulster Orchestra
Belfast · Ulster Hall
6. Take the Stage
This concert shines a spotlight on music filled with sumptuous drama. Strauss’s incidental music for Ariadne auf Naxos gives more than a flavour of its protagonists flitting across the opera stage. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.24 just pre-dates Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro and it too brings all the poise and characterful drama of opera to the concert stage. Our second half moves from the world of opera to ballet, as Tchaikovsky finished his Third Symphony before writing Swan Lake and this work pirouettes with the kinetic energy of the corps de ballet.
May 2, 2025
Ulster Orchestra
Belfast · Ulster Hall
7. Epic Film Scores: Hans Zimmer & John Williams
Hans Zimmer and John Williams are two of the greatest film music composers of all time, creating epic scores for some of the most iconic films ever made. Experience this incredible symphonic celebration of music from blockbusters such as Gladiator, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, Superman, Batman Begins and of course Harry Potter and re-live your memories of hearing and seeing it for the first time.
May 10, 2025
Ulster Orchestra
Belfast · Waterfront Hall
8. Grand Masters
Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff are three giants of Russian music, and this concert foregrounds all their exceptional talents. Arensky uses one of Tchaikovsky’s Sixteen Children’s Songs to capture a range of moods and character, while Stravinsky’s Concerto for Violin is a feisty, joyful romp for the instrument, full of cheerful melody and musical wit. To close, a second visit to the no-holds-barred emotional world of Rachmaninoff’s symphonies (though you’ll have to wait until 2025/26 for Symphony No.3!) and the achingly beautiful, flamboyantly majestic Second.
May 16, 2025
Ulster Orchestra
Belfast · Ulster Hall
9. Act of Defiance
Was it, or wasn’t it, an act of defiance and bitter retort to Stalin’s displeasure? Shostakovich’s life was so utterly and constantly in peril that he could never publicly declare whether his Fifth Symphony was simply ‘a Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism’ or a satirical puncturing of the dictator, deliberately hollow but dressed as adulation. But either way, it’s a phenomenal piece of music – playful, poignant and magisterial, it’s a blockbuster end to the Season. Walton’s lyrically romantic Cello Concerto sets the scene for Shostakovich’s dramatic fireworks.
May 30, 2025
Ulster Orchestra
Belfast · Ulster Hall
Conclusion
The Ulster Orchestra's 2025 season is a celebration of diverse musical landscapes, expertly crafted to engage, entertain, and inspire. From the nature-inspired themes of 'The Great Outdoors' to the dramatic allure of 'Act of Defiance', every concert is a testament to the power of music to evoke emotion and reflection. By combining classical masterpieces with contemporary hits, the orchestra continues to bridge tradition with innovation, offering something for everyone. As the season unfolds, audiences are invited to embark on a musical journey that resonates across the spectrum of human experience.
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