KSO performs modern British masters

Kensington Symphony Orchestra performs an all-British programme of music including Ruth Gipps’s Symphony No.4 (1972). Dedicated to fellow composer Arthur Bliss, it is a fiery, joyful and quintessentially English work.

The concert opens with Doreen Carwithen’s Bishop Rock (1952), a “unashamedly theatrical” overture by a composer known for her film scores. It was inspired by Bishop Rock – the world’s smallest island with a building on it – in the Isles of Scilly.

KSO also performs James MacMillan’s The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (1990), a requiem for a woman burnt as a witch. Elegiac interludes are punctured by violent outbursts in the work, which incorporates Scottish folk tunes and Gregorian chant.

Described as “one of the very best amateur groups in the country” by Classical Music magazine, KSO has been hailed by Classical Source for “putting on bold, adventurous programmes that few of the ‘big five’ in London would either think of or get away with”.