Ripon’s St Cecilia orchestra reveals its 2024/25 Season line-up, beginning with a glittering Hollywood Gala and culminating in an evening of ‘Romantics and Radicals’.
The opening concert, in Ripon Cathedral on Saturday 28th September, features songs from hit musicals of Hollywood’s ‘Golden Age’, sung by rising stars Henna Mun (soprano) and Marcus Swietlicki (tenor). Conductor Xenophon Kelsey MBE played in these shows many times in the early years of his professional horn playing career and enjoyed every minute of it, saying he ‘relishes the chance to share this fabulous music’. St Cecilia’s leader, Richard Fletcher, who recently performed the Sibelius violin concerto in Harrogate to great acclaim, joins the orchestra as soloist in Erich Korngold’s film-score-inspired concerto and the concert begins with Gershwin’s jazz-influenced An American in Paris.
Spring brings journeys over land and sea, as the orchestra returns again to Ripon Cathedral, this time joined by Grand Finalist in Cardiff Singer of the World, Beth Taylor (lauded for her ‘strong presence’ and ‘sensational coloratura’) in a performance of Edward Elgar’s Sea Pictures. Helena Munktell’s Bränningar (‘Breaking Waves’), a rich and colourful depiction of the sea, continues the nautical theme, while Mahler’s ever-popular Symphony No 1 takes a journey across land as we follow the ‘wayfarer’ on his adventures.
Complementing the large-scale concerts in the Cathedral, and always a joy for the orchestra and audience alike, are two concerts in the beautiful surroundings of Holy Trinity Church. Brighten the winter with a programme of ‘Classical Gold’ in January: Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, with its intense and rolling melodies, Mozart’s last instrumental work, the clarinet concerto (with brilliant soloist Ruaridh Bakke) and Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, with its finale of unrestrained joy!
The final concert of the season, ‘Romantics and Radicals’, juxtaposes Schumann’s intensely lyrical cello concerto, performed by St Cecilia’s principal cellist, Helen Dawson, with works by two of the early 20th Century’s most radical composers, Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky: the Classical Symphony, which meshes the tradition of clarity and formality with the renegade spirit of Prokofiev’s early works, and the Pulcinella Suite, which Stravinsky called the ‘epiphany through which the whole of my late work became possible’.
Tickets for all concerts are on sale now via the orchestra website, www.st-cecilia.org.uk, or direct from Ticketsource: www.ticketsource.co.uk/st-cecilia
Take advantage of a ‘Season Ticket’ and save 20% when booking for all 4 concerts before 28th September, or save 15% when booking 3 concerts before 25th January.
Unreserved tickets for each concert (but not reserved or season tickets) can also be purchased from Harrogate Theatre box office and the Little Ripon Bookshop.
