Worthing Symphony Orchestra presents timeless classical music from Beethoven & Brahms

Soloist: Ian Fountain (piano)
Conductor: John Gibbons
Leader: Julian Leaper

Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony is one of his most uplifting works: ‘A Miracle of Beauty’ Riccardo Chailly and Beethoven himself considered it to be a finer work than the Seventh. It contains much urbane humour but is also a riot of melodic invention and rhythmic propulsion.

It contrasts greatly with Brahms’s monumental Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor which began life as a work for two pianos, morphed into a four-movement symphony, before ending up as an epic Piano Concerto. Ian Fountain gave a memorable performance of Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto last season and there will be great anticipation of his return to play one of Brahms’ best loved concertos.

Max Reger, one of Germany’s finest late romantic composers, is hardly known in this country.

Der geigende Eremit (The Hermit Fiddler) is inspired by a Böcklin painting Der Einsiedler. The work features a solo violin, contrasted by a group of muted strings and another group un-muted. It has been favourably compared to Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending.

The concert opens with a rare Beethoven overture (he wrote 11!) - The Ruins of Athens - which was composed in 1811, a couple of years before the Eighth Symphony.

Beethoven Overture ‘The Ruins of Athens’
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor
Max Reger The Hermit fiddler (No. 1 - 4 Böcklein Pictures) Op. 128
Beethoven Symphony No. 8 in F major

Individual concert bookings for Worthing Symphony Society Members will be available online from Monday 11th July 2022, 10am. For full season bookings, please contact the Box Office.

Full season bookings for the general public (via the Box Office) - available from Friday 8th July 2022, 10am.
Individual concert bookings for the general public (online) - available from Friday 15th July 2022, 10am.

WTM is acting as a ticket agent on behalf of the production company responsible for this performance.