Dolly Suite - Fauré
Variations on Nursery Tune for Piano and Orchestra - Dohnanyi
Symphony No.6 - Dvořák

Conductor - Frank Lennon
Leader - Heather Allen

Free event - in aid of a nominated charity (to be announced). Donations will be invited on the evening of the concert.

We will travel around Europe in our first concert of the season.. We begin in France with the delightful Dolly Suite by Gabriel Fauré the first item of which will be known to older listeners who settled down to ‘Listen with Mother’. Then with tongues in our cheeks we present eleven Variations on a Nursery Tune by Ernst von Dohnányi from Hungary. In the second half we travel to Czechoslovakia to hear symphony No. 6 by Antonin Dvořák the earliest of the composer’s major works to receive international acclaim.

Rosamunde Overture - Schubert
Walk to the Paradise Garden - Delius
Piano Concerto - Grieg
Symphony No.7 - Dvořák

Conductor - Frank Lennon
Leader - Heather Allen

Adults - £16.50
Students & Under 18s - £9.00

Tickets can be purchased from The Stoller Hall box office. Please be aware that the full ticket price includes a £1.50 booking fee.

The final concert of the season will be full of readily approachable music starting with Schubert’s beautifully-crafted Rosamunde Overture (not to be confused with the incidental music), followed by Delius’s beautiful romantic miniature The Walk to the Paradise Garden and Grieg’s much loved piano concerto performed by Yuxin Pu. The concert, and indeed our orchestral season, concludes with Dvorak’s Symphony No.7 one of his greatest symphonic works. It is, uncharacteristically, based in a minor key but is never gloomy but, as always with this composer, full of melody and drama.

Soloist - Yuxin Pu

Yuxin Pu is a pianist from China and began learning the piano at the age of six under the tutelage of Yu Bai, Nikolay Sergeyevich and Qian Shu. She has performed in a number of concerts to much critical acclaim. She has also participated in several competitions and is the recipient of the Schumann Cup in China, the National Piano Competition Star-Sea cup Excellence Award, as well as other notable awards. In 2022, she won the Shirley Cattarall Award for Piano and she is also the first prize winner of EPTA Piano Competition in 2023.

Echoes of Ossian - Gade
Songs of Wayfarer - Mahler
Symphony No.2 - Rachmaninov

Soloist - Sarah Winn (Mezzo Soprano)

Free Event - in support of Mustard Tree

Our third concert of the season opens with a piece from yet another Scandinavian, Niels Gade, after Nielsen possibly the best known Danish composer. His stirring Echoes of Ossian (drawn from Celtic legend) will get the concert off to a lively start. We then have the refreshing experience of having a voice soloist for Gustav Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, which, like a number of our works this year, is folk-song inspired. Rachmaninov’s monumentally romantic second symphony, full of highly expressive melodic invention and colourful orchestration will complete the programme.

Sarah Winn recently completed a Master of Music and a Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction at the Royal Northern College of Music, as a scholarship student under the tutelage of Hilary Summers. Sarah is originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, but completed her Bachelor of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium in Australia. While at the Conservatorium, Sarah was awarded the Linda Edith Allen award for achieving the highest performance grade in her year level and the Doreen Ord & Lyceum Club Prize for Classical Voice.

Norwegien Rhapsody No.2 - Svendsen
Violin Concerto - Sibelius
Symphony No.3 - Nielsen

Soloist - Rachel Stonham

Free Event - in support of nominated charity (to be announced)

This winter we will be presenting a Scandinavian programme opening with the joyful, folk-influenced Norwegian Rhapsody No.2 by Johan Svendsen arguably second only to Grieg in the pantheon of Norwegian composers. There follows a performance of one of the great violin concertos, the lyrically beautiful masterpiece by Sibelius. Denmark’s most celebrated composer, Carl Nielsen, provides the second half of the programme, his third symphony which is tuneful, energetic and musically imaginative.

Rachel Stonham is an accomplished violinist with repertoire encompassing music from the Baroque period to the 21st century, and experience in solo, chamber, and orchestral playing. She is currently in the first year of her postgraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she studies with Catherine Yates.

Thieving Magpie Overture - Rossini
Variants of Dives & Lazarus - Vaughan Williams
Rhapsody in Blue - Gershwin
Pictures at an Exhibition - Mussorgsky/Ravel

Soloist - Nalni Chen

Free Event - in support of nominated charity (to be announced)

Our Autumn concert opens with one of Rossini’s most popular overtures, the evocative Thieving Magpie which is full of the composer’s familiar musical devices. There follows Vaughan Williams’s beautiful Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus. The first half will conclude with Gershwin’s exuberant and jazzy Rhapsody in Blue which has been a great crowd pleaser for almost a century. The second half is devoted to a performance of Ravel’s sumptuous orchestration of Mussorgsky’s imaginative Pictures at an Exhibition.

Lieutenant Kije Suite - Prokofiev
Harp Concerto in A Major -Dittersdorf
Symphony No.2 (London) - Vaughan Williams

Soloists - Jess Hughes, Ellie Wood and Holly Alice Morton

Tickets - £12 (£6 concession)

The Stoller Hall Box Office

Our season’s finale concert will open with Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kije Suite constructed out of themes used in the film score of the same name. The concerto item is something of a novelty, the harp concerto by Mozart’s contemporary Dittersdorf. Then our final flourish of the year will be a tour de force, the large-scale Symphony No.2 (London) by Vaughan Williams.

Leonore Overture No.3 - Beethoven
Piano Concerto No.2 - Saint-Saens
Symphony No.2 - Brahms

Free event - in aid of Endometriosis UK

Our Spring concert begins with Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3. Rejected by the composer as too substantial for his opera it serves as a magnificent opener for us and sets the stage for the popular Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2. After the interval we play the equally popular second symphony by Brahms, loved for its sweetness and warmth.

Meistersingers Overture - Wagner
Flute Concerto No.2 - Mozart
Symphony No.3 - Tchaikovsky

Soloist - Helena Cant

The first concert of the new year will open with Wagner’s magisterial overture to the Meistersingers. The overture is full of the drive and energy which Wagner was constantly able to generate in his music. By way of contrast we then move on to the light and transparently scored Flute Concerto no. 2 in D by Mozart with one of our own players as soloist. After the interval, the orchestra will perform Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.3 a symphony not played as often as his last three but has all the unmistakable characteristics of his music: verve, colour, contrast and even with a touch of Mozartian dance about it. It will bring the concert to a lively conclusion.

Free event - in aid of Stockport Progress and Recovery Centre (SPARC)

The Creation (Excerpts) - Haydn
Symphony No.5 - Dvorak

Conductors - Frank Lennon and Nigel Wilkinson

Tickets - £15 / £10 (for students / concessions)

Tickets are available to be purchased from members of the orchestra and choir directly or can be purchased via the following link:

https://www.rncm.ac.uk/performance/manchester-beethoven-orchestra-and-oldham-choral-society/

Our second concert of the season will be held at the Royal Northern College and the orchestra will collaborate with Oldham Choral Society in excerpts from Haydn’s Creation. This is the kind of performance we have not undertaken for a very long time. The choral collaboration will be followed by the orchestra’s performance of Dvorak’s 5th Symphony. This is not the famous New World Symphony which used to be numbered his fifth, but an earlier work. Not as well-known as his last three symphonies, this is, nonetheless, a very fine piece which is full of melodies and characteristic flourishes. It has immediate appeal, even on first hearing.

Prince Igor Overture - Borodin
The Lark Ascending - Vaughan Williams
Soirees Musicales - Britten
Tudor Fragments- Patrick Jones
Carmen Suites - Bizet

Free event - in aid of the RNCM Ukrainian Musicians Fund

Our opening concert of the season is an attractive programme of shorter pieces including the very popular The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams, the vigorous Borodin’s Prince Igor Overture, the playful realisation of Rossini pieces by Benjamin Britten Soirée Musicale and then a new composition by the orchestra’s own Patrick Jones Tallis Fragments, which, like the Britten piece, reinterprets the work of an earlier composer. The concert concludes with the dramatic and thoroughly entertaining Carmen Suites by Georges Bizet.

Beethoven - Coriolanus Overture
Elgar - Cello Concerto
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No.4

Ticketed Event - in aid of MBO funds
£13 - full price
£6.50 - student and under 18

Tickets available from Stoller Hall Box Office or direct from orchestra members

Ethel Smyth - The Wreckers Overture
Stanford - Irish Rhapsody No.1
Holst - Invocation for Cello
Bantock - Sapphic Poem (Cello)
Elgar - Enigma Variations

Free - a collection will be taken on the evening in aid of Cyril Flint Befrienders cyrilflint.org

This concert will be ticket only event. Tickets are FREE and will be available via orchestra members or can be reserved in advance, for collection on the evening at the door of the venue. Please email the usual orchestra address  admin@beethovenorchestra.co.uk to reserve your tickets.

Berlioz - Roman Carnival Overture
R. Strauss - Four Last Songs
Balakirev - Symphony No.1

Sadly we have taken the decision to cancel our Winter Concert due to the current challenges that Covid is presenting for the orchestra and our host venues. However, it is such a fantastic programme that we are looking to reschedule within our 2022-2023 season. We hope to confirm next season’s programme soon.

Kabalevsky — Colas Breugnon Suite
Barber — Adagio for Strings
Weber — Bassoon Concerto
Schumann - Symphony No.3

Free - (by invitation only) in aid of MBO funds.

In view of the continuing Covid situation, the orchestra’s committee has reluctantly come to the conclusion, that in the interest of safety, the November 2021 concert will be by invitation only.  We are very sorry if this decision causes disappointment for some of our patrons. We hope to be able to resume offering our concerts to all in the New Year. Please keep an eye out for further announcements.

A concert to welcome back musician and audiences and celebrate making music again.

Sibelius - King Christian Suite
Bruch - Violin Concerto No.1
Dvorak - Symphony No.7

Soloist - Samual Kane (appearing by kind permission of the RNCM)

By invitation only. Free - in aid of chosen charity (to be announced)

Bizet — Carmen Suites
Gershwin — Rhapsody in Blue
Brahms — Symphony No. 3

Ethel Smyth — The Wreckers Overture
Stanford — Irish Rhapsody No.1
Holst — Invocation for Cello
Bantock — Sapphic Poem (Cello)
Elgar — Enigma Variations

Tchaikovsky — Romeo and Juliet Overture
Mendelssohn — Piano Concerto No.1
Balakirev — Symphony No.1 

Beethoven — Mass in C
Beethoven — Symphony No.7  
Beethoven — Ode to Joy 

Mozart — Magic Flute Overture
Beethoven — Ah Perfido (soprano)
Sibelius — King Christian Suite
Dvorak — Symphony No.7 

Beethoven — Coriolanus Overture                   
Elgar — Cello Concerto                             
Tchaikovsky — Symphony No 4   

With regret our summer concert has been cancelled due to current restrictions relating to Covid 19.

With much regret to our audience and orchestra members, the difficult decision has been made to cancel our Spring Concert due to concerns over Covid 19 (Coronavirus). We would like to acknowledge our wonderful soloist, Nicolò Biemmi, our nominated charity for this concert, Cyril Flint Befrienders and our host venue, Holy Innocents Church, Fallowfield. We appreciate their understanding at these difficult times and we hope to work with them again in the near future.

Kabalevsky — Colas Breugnon Suite
Weber — Bassoon Concerto
Barber — Adagio for Strings
Schumann — Symphony No.3

ADMISSION FREE
Supporting Cyril Flint Befrienders
cyrilflint.org

Soloist — Nicolò Biemmi (Bassoon)

At the age of 19, Nicolò Biemmi graduated with distinction from the Conservatorio Luca Marenzio di Brescia, Italy. He is currently a William Waterhouse Bassoon Scholar at the Royal Northern College of Music, where his principal study tutors are Stefano Canuti and Roberto Giaccaglia.

Nicolò has been selected to perform in masterclasses led by eminent players including Sergio Azzolini, Mathias Racs, Klaus Thunemann, Andrea Zucco and Matthew Wilkie. He has won several significant prizes, including the prestigious cross-college Concerto Competition and the second prize in the “Premio Nazionale delle arti” in Italy. In 2019, he was also selected for the Chamber Orchestra of Europe Academy and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra Academy, where he worked with Daniel Harding and Pekka Kuusisto.

He has played as a soloist and in orchestras in different countries around the world including the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, China and Switzerland.

Nicolò Biemmi appears by kind permission of the RNCM.

Grieg — Lyric Pieces                                  
Vaughan Williams — Five Mystical Songs                     
Shostakovich — Symphony No. 5  

Soloist — Peter Brooks 

ADMISSION FREE
Supporting Boaz Trust
boaztrust.org.uk

Our winter concert contrasts the tuneful and light-hearted Lyric Pieces of Edvard Grieg with the emotionally charged and weighty Shostakovich Symphony no.5 separated by, not a solo instrumental concerto, but a baritone voice in Vaughan-Williams’s Five Mystical Songs.

Nicolai — Overture to Merry Wives of Windsor     
Chausson — Poeme for Violin and Orchestra        
Suk — Scherzo Fantastique                    
Brahms — Symphony No.1 

ADMISSION FREE
Supporting MNDA
mndassociation.org

The elusive and subtle nuances of Chauson’s Poeme for violin and orchestra are contrasted with the solid certainties of Brahms’s First Symphony while being spiced with the mix of Joseph Suk’s Scherzo Fantastique and Otto Nicolai’s Merry Wives of Windsor Overture in our first concert of the season.

Solo performer

Didier is a third-year violinist studying at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he has been awarded an ABRSM scholarship. He studies the violin with Yossi Zivoni and also enjoys playing piano. Didier has led the RNCM’s Opera Orchestra, and is currently first violin of the prize-winning Levare Quartet.

Starting violin lessons at four years old, Didier decided on pursuing a musical career from a young age. In 2015, he began studying at the Purcell School, gaining a wealth of performance experience through his involvement in the Purcell Symphony Orchestra and Contemporary Ensemble. During that time, he also attended the Junior Guildhall, going on to win the highly regarded Lutine Prize. This achievement would lead to an appearance on BBC Radio 3’s ‘In-Tune’ and a concerto performance at the prestigious Milton Court concert hall. 

Didier is a member of the Chineke! Orchestra and has performed with them in many of England’s most widely-recognised concert venues. In September 2017 Didier was thrilled to perform at the BBC Proms as a member of Chineke!, and has been a player on both of their studio albums. 

As a member of the Chineke! Junior String Quartet, Didier has been involved in a range of projects, including performances at Kensington Palace and live on BBC Radio 3. 

In future Didier hopes to venture into more eclectic music, using it to reach audiences from a range of cultures and backgrounds. Having in interest in jazz and hip hop, he believes that these musical influences will enable him to achieve his goal, creating music that will engage many different people.

Didier Osindero appears by kind permission of the RNCM.