Instruments of Time & Truth
EROICA
Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
Friday, 7.30pm
Tickets: www.timeandtruth.co.uk
Oxford’s professional baroque orchestra, founded in 2014, opens its autumn season with two Beethoven masterpieces: the stirring Symphony No.3, ‘Eroica’, and his Violin Concerto in D minor. Croatian virtuoso Bojan Cicic, the orchestra’s leader, is the soloist. Edward Higginbottom conducts.
Oxford Philharmonic
EVGENY KISSIN, PIANO
Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
Saturday, 7.30pm
Tickets: 01865 980980 or www.oxfordphil.com
Oxford Philharmonic opens a new chapter in its illustrious history with this first concert of the new season. The Side-by-Side initiative, in which talented young instrumentalists perform alongside professional musicians, gets its inaugural outing in the opening piece, Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, with recently-appointed Assistant Conductor Hannah Schneider wielding the baton.
Marios Papadopoulos takes over conducting duties for Liszt’s Piano Concerto No.2 in A major, with Moscow-born pianist Evgeny Kissin making his Oxford Philharmonic debut as soloist, and Brahms’ Symphony No.2 in D major.
Oxford Coffee Concerts
FRETWORK
Holywell Music Room, Oxford
Sunday, 11.15am
Tickets: 01865 305305 or www.ticketsoxford.com
Described by the London Evening Standard as the “finest viol consort on the planet”, this five-piece ensemble was formed over 30 years ago to perform music spanning several centuries, from the Renaissance to the present. In this hour-long concert they perform music by Lawes, Debussy, Grieg, Bach, Purcell and Muhly Isaac.
Oxford Bach Soloists
SOUND IN MY BODY
New College Chapel
Sunday, 3pm
Tickets: www.oxfordbachsoloists.com
This outstanding choir continues its chronological survey of the JS Bach vocal canon with cantatas for the 14th, 15th, 16thand 17thSundays after Trinity, including There is nothing sound in my body(BWV 25), Why do you trouble yourself, my heart (BWV 138), Christ, he is my life (BWV 95) and Bring to the Lord the honour due (BWV 148). Tom Hammond-Davies conducts.
Didcot Concert Orchestra
CONCERT
Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot
Sunday, 4pm
Tickets: 01235 515144 or www.cornerstone-arts.org
Formed in February 2018, the Didcot Concert Orchestra has quickly established itself as a highly accomplished amateur orchestra. Their fifth concert includes Rachmaninov’s evocative symphonic fantasy The Rock, extracts from Wagner’s Tannhauser (with semi-chorus from Didcot Choral Society) and Rismky-Korsakov’s popular symphonic suite Scheherazade(with soloist Kate Bailey, the orchestra’s leader). Geoff Bushell conducts.
NICOLA LISLE
