Alison Bellerby
Author's posts
Hanja and Bjorn team up for romantic concerto
An unashamedly romantic piano concerto will bring together piano soloist Hanja Bantock with her conductor husband Bjorn for a concert with St Albans Symphony Orchestra on Saturday 27th April (7.30pm, St Saviour’s Church, Sandpit Lane, St Albans). When Robert Schumann’s piano concerto received its first performance in 1846, his wife, Clara, was the soloist. Hanja, who …
Orchestra’s night fever
Herts Advertiser critic John Manning thoroughly enjoyed SASO’s Orchestral Colours concert What a night the St Albans Symphony Orchestra gave its audience on Saturday. Orchestral Colours was the name of the programme it presented at St Saviour’s Church in St Albans and that was exactly what it gave, from the sparkling pyrotechnics of Shostakovich’s Festival …
Magnus Johnston to interpret Beethoven’s masterpiece for violin
The Harpenden-born violinist Magnus Johnston makes a welcome return to St Albans music-making on March 9th in an early spring concert that promises to banish winter blues with brilliant masterpieces of orchestra colouring. (7.30pm, St Saviour’s Church, Sandpit Lane, AL1 4DF) Appearing with St Albans Symphony Orchestra and its conductor Bjorn Bantock, Magnus will play the beautiful and …
Orchestra Rings the Changes
November 2012 – John Manning writes in the Herts Advertiser “Although the opening work of the evening was (Wagner’s) popular Ride of the Valkyries, the real sensation was a concert presentation of Act 1 Scene three, the famous love duet from the same opera. Superb in the role of Siegmund was tenor Jonathan Finney whose …
Romantic classics to start the New Year!
Make a romantic start to 2013 with the St Albans Symphony Orchestra’s New Year Concert! Our traditional family event in St Albans Abbey features classics that are guaranteed to bring a warm glow to the heart no matter what the weather on January 1st (Please note the 7pm start). Under the baton of Principal Conductor …
SASO musician reveals his heroic tenor identity!
Jonathan Finney is a valued viola player with St Albans Symphony (SASO). But on Saturday November 10th he will reveal another identity as operatic superhero, singing the role of Siegmund in a scene from Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle (7.30pm, St Saviour’s, Sandpit Lane, St Albans). When Jonathan joined the orchestra two years ago after moving to Childwickbury, …
Legacy helps SASO to scale the Alpine Symphony’s heights
St Albans Symphony Orchestra (SASO) has celebrated the life of a woman known to many in the city as ‘”the little lady on the bicycle” by performing one of the biggest and loudest pieces of classical music ever written. A legacy left by Babs Yule, a long-time friend of the orchestra who died aged 90 …
Festival Concert is a family affair for SASO’s conductor
St Albans Symphony Orchestra’s Festival Concert promises to be a family affair on Saturday 23rd June when conductor Bjorn Bantock leads the performers in music composed 80 years ago by his great-grandfather, Sir Granville Bantock (7.30pm St Saviour’s Church, Sandpit Lane, St Albans). Sir Granville was a leading figure in British music-making in the first …
Conductors wield the cake knife at SASO’s 80th birthday party
Three conductors helped St Albans Symphony Orchestra to celebrate its 80th anniversary last week together with violinist Jennifer Wigram – the orchestra’s leader who has worked with all of them during the past 30 years. Andrew Parnell (1983-2001) and James Ross (2001-2010) swopped their batons for a cake knife together with SASO’s current principal conductor …
