In her first appearance as Principal Guest Conductor Designate of the BBC Concert Orchestra, Anna- Maria Helsing conducts the orchestra in a concert from Maida Vale Studios, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

A programme of arrangements and transcriptions opens with Joby Talbot’s arrangement of Purcell’s ‘Chacony’. Britten was a great admirer of Purcell and the concert continues with Britten’s transcription of the second movement of Mahler’s great hymn to nature, the Symphony No. 3 – Mahler intially called this minuet ‘What the Wild Flowers Tell Me’.

BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Alessandro Fisher joins the BBC CO in Finzi’s ever popular ‘Dies Natalis’, one of the high points of English pastoral writing. Korngold was aged only 11 when he wrote ‘Der Schneemann’ (The Snowman), for piano, and his teacher Zemlinsky brought it to life with his masterful orchestration.

We end with another reworking: the reduced orchestration that Viennese composer Erwin Stein made of Janáček’s colourful Sinfonietta.

Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis. Please note that as not everyone who asks for tickets uses them, to make sure we have a full house we send out more tickets than there are places. We do our best to get the numbers right, but unfortunately we occasionally have to disappoint people so please arrive early.