National Symphony Orchestra Ukraine

We're delighted to welcome back this wonderful orchestra, whose last concert here was one of the highlights of 2023. They begin with what is believed to be the first symphony written by a Ukrainian composer, completed while studying in Italy and recently discovered in an archive there.

Beethoven's last piano concerto is his most grand, brilliant, and powerful. The confident outer movements are balanced by an inward-looking slow movement, which moves into the finale with a simple but magical transition.

Delius' two miniatures show the renowned delicacy of his orchestral writing to the full, expressing both the lighter atmosphere of spring and the sultry summer night to perfection.

Beethoven's Seventh Symphony was first performed at a mammoth concert in 1813, which was one of his greatest public successes. Its joyous energy and unstoppable rhythmic impetus have made it among the most popular of all his symphonies.