KSO performs Brahms’s Symphony No.3

Kensington Symphony Orchestra is joined by Chloé Van Soeterstède for Brahms’s Symphony No.3 (1883), of which Dvořák remarked that Brahms had surpassed his previous symphonies, “if not, perhaps, in grandeur, then certainly in beauty”. 

The concert opens with Berlioz’s Le corsaire (1844), a dashing overture that imagines the dangers and thrills of life as a pirate, its title suggesting Byron’s poem The Corsair. Dramatic and lyrical, it shares rhythmic energy with the composer’s Le carnaval romain.

KSO also performs Dvořák’s popular Cello Concerto (1894-95). Having corrected Dvořák’s proofs of the work, Brahms remarked: “If I had known that it was possible to compose such a concerto for the cello, I would have tried it myself!”

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”.