Spring Concert 2025
The HSO Spring Concert is always a favourite with our audiences. This year, the programme includes:
- Cockaigne Overture (“London Town”), Edward Elgar
- Cello Concerto, Sir Arthur Bliss (soloist Lily Dai)
- Symphony No 5, Ralph Vaughan-Williams
We are very grateful for the support of our sponsors for this concert:
- The Vaughan Williams Foundation
- The Bliss Trust
- Equinox Financial Planning
YouTube
- Cockaigne Overture, Edward Elgar - Sir Roger Norrington leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Elgar's Overture 'Cockaigne (In London Town)' on the first night of the BBC Proms 2012.
- Cello Concerto, Arthur Bliss - Tim Hugh, Cello, with English Northern Philharmonia, conducted by David Lloyd Jones (1970).
- Symphony No.5, Ralph Vaughan-Williams - The Oslo Philharmonic with Vasily Petrenko perform Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 5 in Oslo Concert Hall. The recording was made on 6th May 2021.
Programme Notes
Overture Cockaigne (In London Town) Edward Elgar (1857 – 1934)
Cockaigne describes a land of plenty and relaxation, little if any work, and as much food and drink as you could consume. It has medieval origins, a peasant’s dream of luxury and ease, comfort and pleasure. Elgar’s overture gives a lively and colourful musical portrait of Edwardian London.
Violoncello Concerto Arthur Bliss (1891 – 1975)
- Allegro deciso
- Larghetto
- Allegro
The Cello Concerto was completed in March 1970, having been requested by the great Russian cellist, Mstislav Rostropovich, to whom it was dedicated “with admiration and gratitude”.
Symphony No 5, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 – 1958)
Vaughan Williams had been working on and off for many years on his operatic version of Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. Fearing – wrongly as it turned out – that the opera would never be completed, Vaughan Williams reworked some of the music he’d already written into a new symphony. The work is generally tranquil in character and was particularly well received (1943) for the comfort it gave at a time of all-out war.