Romantic classics to start the New Year!

‘An American in Paris’ – Bjorn Bantock (front, second left) and SASO are looking forward to playing Gershwin at 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 Bjorn Bantock, the orchestra will be playing favourite works that include Tchaikovsky’s dramatic Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, the Invitation to the Dance by Weber, Verdi’s Act 3 Prelude from La Traviata, and the much-loved Intermezzo from Mascagni’s opera Cavalleria Rusticana.

Movie-going romantics who remember Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron dancing beside the River Seine to the music of Gershwin will look forward to the composer’s jazz-influenced An American in Paris. Shostakovich’s entertaining Jazz Suite No 2 will, add further fun and frivolity to the evening without – despite its name – being noticeably ‘jazzy’. Another Russian composer on the programme is Borodin and his wistful symphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asia.

Meanwhile, music lovers who associate New Year with Vienna and its ‘Waltz King’ will not be disappointed. The Overture to ‘Die Fledermaus’ by Johann Strauss the Younger is promised as part of the formal proceedings, but past experience suggests there could be other treats before the concert draws to an end.

Tickets, price £20, £16, £12 and £8 (£1 accompanied children under 18; £5 students) are available from the SASO Ticket Secretary (01727 857422) tickets@saso.org.uk; or from the Cathedral Box Office (01727 890256); or online (booking fee applies).

 

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