Kensington Symphony Orchestra returns to Smith Square Hall on Monday 16 March, when we are joined by guest conductor Chloé Van Soeterstède for a performance of Brahms’s Symphony No.3 (1883).

After spending the summer of 1883 writing the work at Wiesbaden, on the Rhine, Brahms played the first and final movements on the piano to Antonín Dvořák, who remarked that his fellow composer had surpassed his previous two symphonies, “if not, perhaps, in grandeur, then certainly in beauty”. Premièred by the Vienna Philharmonic under Hans Richter in December of that year,
the work was well received, with Richter proclaiming it to be Brahms’s ‘Eroica’.

We also perform Dvořák’s Cello Concerto (1894-95), which was premièred by the English cellist Leo Stern, conducted by the composer, at the Queen’s Hall in London in March 1896. The opening Allegro is followed by a lyrical Adagio, in which Dvořák pays tribute to his seriously ill sister-in-law,and a lively Finale. Having corrected Dvořák’s proofs of the work, Brahms remarked: “If I had known that it was possible to compose such a concerto for the cello, I would have tried it myself!”

The concert opens with the Swedish composer Elfrida Andrée’s Concert Overture in D major (1873). A pupil of the leading Danish musician Niels Gade, and sister of the soprano Fredrika Stenhammar, she was the first woman to conduct a symphony orchestra in Sweden and was the organist at Gothenburg Cathedral for more than 60 years. Her orchestral style reflects her admiration for Mendelssohn, and this two-section work is notable for its serene atmosphere and colourful handling of the winds.