Worthing Symphony Orchestra: Borodin, Strauss & Bruckner

Alexander Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia opens this concert with a scene of serene beauty and quiet majesty. A musical journey across a vast, sunlit plain unfolds as delicate melodies intertwine, evoking distant caravans and the meeting of cultures with exquisite orchestral colour.

The spotlight then turns to the horn, as Ben Goldscheider performs Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major. Written when the composer was just eighteen, this virtuosic and exuberant work brims with youthful confidence, lyrical warmth and dazzling brilliance. Goldscheider, one of today’s most exciting horn players, brings both sensitivity and flair to a concerto that remains a cornerstone of the instrument’s repertoire.

After the interval, Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, the ‘Romantic’, crowns the afternoon. From its mysterious opening—horn calls emerging from a shimmering orchestral haze—to its sweeping climaxes and noble themes, this is music of epic scale and spiritual depth that unfolds like the vast Alpine landscape so beloved by the composer. A work, rich in atmosphere and grandeur, that through power, gentle beauty and patience ultimately builds to a transcendent, uplifting conclusion.

Ben Goldscheider has given recitals at major concert halls across Europe, including the Concertgebouw, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Kölner Philharmonie, Musikverein, Pierre Boulez Saal, Southbank Centre, and Wigmore Hall. As a soloist, he has appeared with orchestras such as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, BBC NOW, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (BBC Proms), Das Sinfonie Orchester Berlin, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Lucerne Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra (Klosters Music), Musikkollegium Winterthur, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, Prague Philharmonia, Tapiola Sinfonietta, and the Ulster Orchestra.