KSO performs The Firebird

Kensington Symphony Orchestra opens its 2025/26 season with Stravinsky’s The Firebird (complete; 1909-10). Written for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, the work, inspired by Russian fairy tales, catapulted the composer to international fame.

The concert opens with Rodion Shchedrin’s Concerto for Orchestra No.1, ‘Naughty Limericks’ (1963). Impish and humorous, this virtuosic work incorporates a number of Russian folk tunes, in addition to a built-in encore at the end of the score.

KSO also performs Martinů’s Les fresques de Piero della Francesca (1955). The work pays homage to the Italian artist’s early Renaissance masterpiece, which Martinů had admired in the Tuscan town of Arezzo in 1954.

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”.