The prodigiously gifted Euan Shields signs off his tour of duty as the Hallé’s Assistant Conductor with this red-blooded Slavic programme, beginning with Janáček’s atmospheric rhapsody for orchestra, Taras Bulba. Inspired by Gogol’s novella, this gritty portrait of the Cossack leader and his ill-fated sons vividly captures their battle-scarred lives and loves. Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma, whose dazzling artistry blew us all away last season, makes a welcome return with Tchaikovsky’s ardent Violin Concerto. It was written amidst the wreckage of his ill-advised marriage but the composer found inspiration in his friendship with violinist Yosif Kotek and completed the score in less than a month. The result was a triumph; unashamedly virtuosic yet fresh and lyrical, with a heartfelt slow movement and a whirling gypsy finale.

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The Hallé

Royal Concert Hall Nottingham

The progressive 20th-century Polish Composer Witold Lutosławski was admired for his avant-garde works but he was also capable of creating immediately appealing music. His Little Suite of 1950, with its infectious energy and folk-inspired themes, has since become a popular concert opener. A century earlier, Lutosławski’s compatriot Chopin was considered a radical in his own Romantic fashion and his youthful Second Piano Concerto is an unashamed showpiece for the soloist who’s centre stage at all times to dazzle the audience with light-fingered lyricism. The effervescent Romanian pianist Alexandra Dariescu takes up the challenge.

Warsaw Philharmonic

2025/2026 May Concert

St Mary’s Church Nottingham

Kazakh pianist Alim Beisembayev shot to international fame when winning the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2021 and also taking home the medici.tv Audience Prize. Not long after, he won worldwide acclaim by making his BBC Proms debut with only two days’ notice. He’s an artist who thrives on big repertoire and they don’t come much bigger than Prokofiev’s 2nd Piano Concerto, the centrepiece of this Royal Liverpool Philharmonic programme. Premiered in 1913, Prokofiev’s Concerto vividly embodies the energy of the machine age: one commentator described it moving ‘with the relentless force and fluidity of a speeding locomotive.’ The soloist is continually pushed to the limit, whether in its lush and expansive theme or its finger-crunching cadenza.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

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Our first visit from a Spanish orchestra in many a year brings this exciting young ensemble from the port city of A Coruña. They’re joined by Thibaut Garcia, who’s been hailed as ‘the new face of classical guitar’ after winning every major international guitar competition within the space of just a few months. His performance of Rodrigo’s evergreen Concierto de Aranjuez – so popular that it’s been recorded over a hundred times – is the centrepiece of a richly varied programme from Spain and France.

Spanish Galicia Symphony Orchestra

The Requiem of 1874 is the only large-scale work that Verdi didn’t compose for the stage but this dramatic choral classic wouldn’t sound out of place at La Scala; indeed, the conductor Hans von Bülow memorably described it as ‘Verdi’s latest opera, in church vestments.’ Whatever its credentials as a devotional work, there’s no denying its sheer emotional power which deals in extremes of scale, from the outright terror of the Dies Irae – all doom-thundering bass drum and fire-spitting trumpets – to the intimacy of a pleading, unaccompanied duet in the Agnus Dei. Verdi gives his enormous chorus plenty of chance to shine, too, as in the scurrying virtuosity of the double-fugue Sanctus. Given its capacity for shock and awe, it’s not surprising that the Requiem has supercharged the soundtracks for countless movies, Including Django Unchained and Mad Max: Fury Road. Heard live in the concert hall it’s an unforgettably vivid and visceral experience.

BBC Concert Orchestra: Verdi's Requiem

Commissioned for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Gloriana attracted controversy in exploring the hidden romantic life of the monarch’s namesake and predecessor. Britten’s music, though, brilliantly captures the spirit of Elizabethan dances and lute songs, whilst giving them an ironic 20th-century distance. The seven Courtly Dances that open this concert are an immediately appealing example.

2025/2026 March Concert

Albert Hall Conference Centre

The finale of this concert at Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall is a brilliantly imaginative response to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons from Argentina’s king of tango nuevo, Astor Piazzolla.

Part of a set of six concertos presented by Bach to the Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1721, The Third Brandenburg Concerto achieved widespread popularity and later became known to millions through its use as the theme tune for the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow for many years. Equally admired, his Concerto for Two Violins, weaves expressive lines between the two soloists in a captivating dialogue with the orchestra.

The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

This special performance by the BBC Philharmonic is a rare opportunity to hear Bartók’s gripping one-act opera, Bluebeard’s Castle, in an atmospheric concert hall staging with theatrical lighting. An impulsive young bride has turned her back on her family, only to uncover the gruesome truth about her new husband lurking behind every locked door of his imposing citadel. With sinister strings, strident winds and commanding brass, it’s both a compelling psychological drama and a masterpiece of orchestral scene painting. The spectacular opening of the fifth door, revealing both the vast expanse of Bluebeard’s realm and his overbearing power, remains one of the most spine-tingling moments in all music.

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra: Bluebeard's Castle

Celebrate the festive season in style with the sensational Down for the Count Swing Orchestra, as they head to the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham for their much-loved annual show, Swing Into Christmas!

Swing into Christmas with the Down for the Count Orchestra

It’s been twenty years since Aurora Orchestra tore up the rule book and made its name worldwide as a boundary-breaking ensemble, creating extraordinary musical experiences by incorporating drama and choreography and making even the most familiar classical works feel new-minted by performing them entirely from memory.

Aurora Orchestra

A Voyage of Discovery and Fate

How often do you hear a trombone concerto in an orchestral programme? It’s a rarity at best, but the most versatile instrument in the brass section can tingle spines and melt hearts in the hands of a great soloist, and with Peter Moore, former BBC Young Musician winner at the age of just 12, we’re in the presence of trombone superstardom. For his Nottingham concerto debut he’ll be playing the piece specially written for him by the brilliant young British composer Dani Howard, whose sparkling sound world has been winning legions of fans. Written during the pandemic her concerto is a celebration of hope and humanity during the most difficult times and draws on every element of the trombone’s enormous expressive range, from warm, soaring lyricism to spring-heeled, sonic gymnastics.

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

ABC are returning with their iconic Lexicon Of Love Orchestra tour which sees them perform their timeless debut album “The Lexicon of Love” in its entirety alongside all the ABC hits across the UK.

ABC - Lexicon Of Love Orchestra Tour

Carl Nielsen’s bustling overture to his 1904 opera, Maskarade, launches this Nordic programme from the acclaimed partnership of Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, joined here by regular collaborator, Simon Trpceski, for Grieg’s evergreen Piano Concerto.  Composed when he was just 25, it’s an astonishingly accomplished blend of personal style with national musical identity, mixing Norwegian folk idioms with youthful solo writing that’s both brilliant and warmly lyrical.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

For a showcase of all the colours in an orchestra’s palette, this CBSO concert is a great place to start. Benjamin Britten’s famous orchestral guide began life in 1945 as the soundtrack to an instructional film, but its pitch perfect spotlighting of each instrument, all based around Henry Purcell’s Rondeau from the play Abdelazar, has never dated. On a more intimate scale, Mozart’s much-loved Flute and Harp Concerto gives two CBSO Principal players a chance to shine. Composed in 1778 for the flute-playing Duke of Guines and his harpist daughter, it wasn’t exactly Mozart’s most cherished commission, as he admitted to disliking both solo instruments. Nonetheless he delivered it in style, its graceful interplay showing Mozart at his most charming and lyrical.

City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

A majestic fanfare opens our new season, as the trumpets of Shostakovich’s 1954 Festive Overture herald five-minutes of joyful high spirits.  Its dutiful optimism, composed in just three days in celebration of the 37th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, would no doubt have felt forced to him, having been harried by the Soviet regime for several years. But it’s hard to resist the overture’s blistering momentum and the soaring nobility of its big tune. The mood of Elgar’s Cello Concerto could hardly be more different; his last major work is a poignant farewell to a world blown apart by the Great War. The acclaimed Norwegian cellist Truls Mørk is our soloist in this emotive dialogue between soloist and orchestra.

2024/2025 July Concert

Explore the deeply emotive power of three enduring orchestral masterpieces with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Music Director, Vasily Petrenko.

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