Tchaikovsky described his Symphony No. 6 as ‘the best thing I have ever composed or will compose.’ It presents the culmination of the composer’s thoughts on life and love, subjects on which this tortured individual had plenty to say, while leading a symphony orchestra to bear its soul and casting a spell on audiences like no other symphony of its era. Andrew Litton conducts this pivotal symphony, having navigated the stormy waters of Wagner’s Prelude to The Flying Dutchman, and is joined by the Orchestra’s Solo Cello Mats Lidström in the performance of his own concerto marking the centenary of the birth of Robert F Kennedy.

Tchaikovsky Pathétique

The Sheldonian Theatre

Mats Lidström, Solo Cello of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and an internationally known pedagogue and virtuoso, picks up the mantle from his colleague Peter Adams at the Holywell Music Room, completing our traversal of Bach’s solo cello suites with the even-numbered suites. The bouncing Gigue of No. 2 contains the most extended two-part writing of the six, while No. 4 is noted for its pair of almost skeletal Bourrées. The fiendishly difficult sixth and final suite was written for an instrument of five strings and demands extensive hopping across strings as it urges itself forward from a propulsive Prelude.

Mats Lidström

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Past events

Jun 6, 2025

Tchaikovsky Pathétique · Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra

Mar 1, 2025

Bach Cello Suites Part II · Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra

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