The York Symphony Orchestra performs three concerts annually,
in November/December, March/April, and June/July.

Unless otherwise indicated, all concerts take place in the
Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall
University of York
YO10 5DD

2019/20 Season

7.30 pm, Sunday 8 December 2019

Tchaikovsky: March Slave Op. 31
Elgar: Cello Concerto in E Minor Op. 85
Cara Berridge: Cello
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 in D Minor Op. 47

Tchaikovsky’s popular March Slave incorporates Serbian and Russian folk songs in an orchestral showcase written during the Serbo-Turkish war. Elgar’s Cello Concerto is a far more intimate work, hinting at personal melancholy as well as mourning for the world he had seen destroyed during the First World War. Shostakovich composed his Fifth Symphony against the very real threat of being purged in Stalin’s Russia; his response is a thrilling and heroic defiance against tyranny.

7.30 pm, Saturday 4 April 2020

Clyne: This Midnight Hour
Barber: First Essay for Orchestra Op. 12
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Paul Feehan: Piano
Beach: Symphony in E minor ‘Gaelic’ Op. 32

All of the works in this concert were composed in the USA. Clyne’s This Midnight Hour is based on poems depicting the power of music. Barber’s Essay, composed just after his famous Adagio for Strings, explores a haunting theme from multiple perspectives. Barber always distanced himself from music about ‘skyscrapers’, but Gershwin’s jazz-influenced Rhapsody in Blue for piano and orchestra was infused (he said) with the sound of ‘our metropolitan madness’. Beach’s Symphony in E minor, turned to a different aspect of the US melting pot, drawing on the Irish folk songs she heard in her native Boston to telling effect.

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7.30 pm, Saturday 4 July 2020

Mendelssohn: Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21
Sibelius: Karelia Suite Op. 11
Sibelius: Finlandia Op. 26
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet Suite no. 2

Exciting musical stories form the focus of this concert. Sibelius’s Karelia Suite and Finlandia both tell tales about his native Finland, rooted in nationalist fervour. Karelia Suite draws on music written to depict historical events in the Karelia region, whilst Finlanda offers a rousing vision of a Finnish independence yet-to-come. The beginning and end of the concert turn to Shakespeare. Mendelssohn’s miraculous Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, written when he was just 17, conjures up a magical world of imagination. Prokofiev’s second Romeo and Juliet suite, with its famous March of the Montagues and Capulets paints an altogether more tragic, if beautiful, picture.

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2020/21 Season

Sunday 6 December 2020
Saturday 27 March 2021
Saturday 26 June 2021

Tickets

Tickets are available:

through our webstore page
from the Tickets Secretary: Mrs Margaret Moorhouse tel. (01904) 627900
from any member of the Orchestra;
on the door, on the night;
Visit York, 1, Museum Street York YO1 7DT
Tel: (01904) 550099
Email: info@visityork.org

Ticket prices (includes free Programme):

Adult: £15
Concession: £13
Children & Students: £5

During the Autumn term, a “season ticket” may be purchased that covers all three concerts at a reduced price: