Royal Northern Sinfonia
Tuesday, 1st October 2024 – 7.30pm
Performers
Our new season gets off to a flying start with tonight’s concert by one of the North-East’s favourite ensembles renewing a long-standing friendship with the society – the Royal Northern Sinfonia. Founded in 1958 as the Northern Sinfonia, the orchestra first played at one of our concerts sixty years ago in 1964, when it was just 6 years old. It is now the UK’s only full-time chamber orchestra – 37 musicians coming together to play music by the world’s greatest composers, old and new.
We are delighted to welcome 11 of their 37 musicians to the Queen’s Hall Arts Centre this evening for a programme that is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face!
Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp, written shortly before the composer’s death, has been described as music that ‘floats into a magical dreamscape’. Arnold Bax is an English romantic composer from the early 20th-century, best known for orchestral pieces like Tintagel but also a prolific composer of chamber music. His Nonet is a sunny, relaxed score beautifully written for its nine instruments.
Schubert’s Octet is 200 years old this year and has been loved by performers and audiences alike ever since its first performance in 1824. The melody and beauty that infuse the work are quintessential Schubert. This will be a real treat!
‘The jewel of our region’ – Music in Durham
‘The ensemble sound of the RNS is pretty special’ – Edinburgh Music Review
Programme
Debussy Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp
Bax Nonet
Schubert Octet in F major, D803
Watch
Mozart – String quartet no. 19 in C major, K465 (‘Dissonance’) – last movement (Allegro molto):
Sibelius – Andante festivo (recorded in Hexham Abbey) –