3 February 2020

Michael Seal, conductor
Nicola Benedetti, violin

Corinthian Orchestra returns to Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall with a popular programme of Tchaikovsky and Berlioz.

Tchaikovsky's joyful Capriccio Italien - a fantasy for orchestra written when the composer spent three months in Rome in 1880 - sets the performance off in high spirits. 

Unfortunately due to ill health and upon the advice of her doctor, soloist Alexandra Dariescu has regrettably had to withdraw from her performance with the Corinthian Chamber Orchestra as previously advertised. We are sorry for any disappointment Dariescu's absence may cause, but we are delighted to announce that Nicola Benedetti joins the orchestra to perform Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. This work replaces Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 on the repertoire. The occasion marks Benedetti's first performance post her Grammy victory earlier this month.

Bewitching images abound in Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique - a wild musical ride that takes us from bucolic landscapes to the furious dances of a witches’ sabbath.

Composed in 1830, the spine-tingling piece - the 27-year-old composer’s first symphony - was inspired by his experience of opium and obsession with the actress Harriet Smithson; the fourth movement, he claimed, completed over the course of a single night.