Kensington Symphony Orchestra

Woodwind sectional rehearsal at Pimlico Academy
2023-06-08 18:30 - 21:30, 2023-05-04 18:30 - 21:30, 2023-03-02 18:30 - 21:30, 2023-02-01 18:30 - 21:30, 2022-11-10 18:30 - 21:30, 2022-09-29 18:30 - 21:30, 2022-06-23 19:30 - 22:30 (Europe/London) | Pimlico Academy, 36 Lupus Street, London, SW1V 3AT, United Kingdom

String sectional rehearsal at Netley Primary School
2023-06-08 18:30 - 21:30, 2023-05-04 18:30 - 21:30, 2023-03-02 18:30 - 21:30, 2022-11-10 18:30 - 21:30, 2022-09-29 18:30 - 21:30, 2022-06-23 19:30 - 22:30 | Netley Primary School, 74 Stanhope Street, London, NW1 3EX, United Kingdom

Tutti rehearsal at The Grey Coat Hospital School (St Andrew’s Site)
2023-06-01 18:30 - 21:30, 2023-05-25 18:30 - 21:30, 2023-05-18 18:30 - 21:30, 2023-05-11 18:30 - 21:30, 2023-04-27 18:30 - 21:30, 2023-04-20 18:30 - 21:30, 2023-02-23 18:30 - 21:30, 2023-02-16 18:30 - 21:30 and 11 more dates | The Grey Coat Hospital School, Greycoat Place SW1P 2DY, St Andrew's Site, Greycoat Place, London, SW1P 2DY, United Kingdom

Mahler’s Third Symphony with Helen Charlston
2023-05-20 19:30 | Fairfield Halls, Park Lane, Croydon, CR9 1DG, United Kingdom

Tutti rehearsal at Fairfield Halls
2023-05-20 15:30 - 17:30 | Fairfield Halls, Park Lane, Croydon, CR9 1DG, United Kingdom

Tutti rehearsal at Bishopsgate Institute
2023-05-14 11:00 - 17:00, 2023-02-02 18:30 - 21:30 | Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London, EC2M 4QH, United Kingdom

Stravinsky and Rachmaninov
2023-03-14 19:30 | Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom
One of the composer’s most popular works, Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony (1906-07) was written during his three-year stay in Dresden, away from the political tumult in Russia that would lead to revolution. After revising his drafts extensively, Rachmaninov conducted the première in 1908 to widespread acclaim, restoring the confidence that had been shattered by the hostile reaction to his First Symphony nine years earlier.
Lasting around 60 minutes, the work is a formidable piece, opening with a dramatic first movement and a vigorous but lyrical scherzo. The critic Alfred J. Swan notes that, at a time when composers were “preoccupied with tone colours, Rachmaninov’s genius manifested itself in the shaping of renewed melodic form”, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the famous Adagio, with its beautiful melody for violins and solo clarinet. The work concludes with an exultant, radiant finale.
The orchestra also performs Stravinsky’s ballet Agon (1953-57) – a Greek word meaning “contest” but also “anguish”. Its long gestation period encompassed the composer’s shift in musical style, so the piece both reflects his diatonic idiom and introduces his 12-tone technique. The work is a series of dance movements, some based on 17th-century French court dances such as the sarabande.

Duration: around 1 hour 45 mins (including interval)

Seating rehearsal at Cadogan Hall
2023-03-14 17:30 - 18:30 | Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom

Tutti rehearsal at The Grey Coat Hospital School Sports Hall
2023-03-12 10:00 - 17:00, 2022-11-27 11:00 - 17:00 | The Grey Coat Hospital School Sports Hall, Regency Street, St Michael's Site, 98 Regency Street, London, SW1P 4GH, United Kingdom

Tutti rehearsal at the Grey Coat Hospital School (St Andrew's Site)
2023-03-09 18:30 - 21:30 | The Grey Coat Hospital School, Greycoat Place SW1P 2DY, St Andrew's Site, Greycoat Place, London, SW1P 2DY, United Kingdom

Tutti rehearsal at Queen’s Gate House
2023-03-07 18:30 - 21:30 | MPW Queen’s Gate House, 65 Queen's Gate, London, SW7 5JS

Britten’s opera Peter Grimes
2023-02-05 18:30 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom
Kensington Symphony Orchestra returns to Queen Elizabeth Hall for a concert performance of Britten’s Peter Grimes. Music director Russell Keable welcomes the Epiphoni Consort and 12 exciting singers, including the tenor John Hudson (Peter Grimes), the soprano Mari Wyn Williams (Ellen Orford) and the baritones Nicholas Morris (Ned Keene) and Nicholas Folwell (Captain Balstrode).
Britten’s opera was conceived in the US, where the composer was living in the early years of the Second World War, and was completed on his return to the UK in 1943. Described by the Manchester Guardian on its première as “a kind of white-hot poetry”, it depicts ”a subject very close to my heart: the struggle of the individual against the masses”, Britten said.
Montagu Slater’s libretto for the work was based on George Crabbe’s poem The Borough (1810); the fisherman Peter Grimes lives and works in a fictional town similar to Aldeburgh in Suffolk, where Crabbe and later Britten lived. Grimes, wrongly accused by townsfolk of murdering his apprentice, appoints another with the help of Ellen Orford, the schoolmistress he wishes to marry – but when another accident happens, a mob is roused to fury and the tale reaches a tragic end.
The première, in June 1945 – with Britten’s partner, Peter Pears, in the title role – marked the postwar reopening of Sadler’s Wells, and the opera matched the takings for a simultaneous production of Puccini’s La bohème. A young Leonard Bernstein, conducting the US première, was praised for bringing out the “drive and dissonance of a work that is far from ‘tuneful’ in the conventional sense”.

Tutti rehearsal at Queen Elizabeth Hall
2023-02-05 15:30 - 17:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Tutti rehearsal at Henry Wood Hall
2023-01-29 11:00 - 17:00, 2022-10-16 11:00 - 17:00 | Henry Wood Hall, Trinity Church Square, London, SE1 4HU, United Kingdom

Tutti rehearsal at Queen's Gate House (formerly Baden-Powell House)
2023-01-19 18:30 - 21:30 | MPW Queen’s Gate House, 65 Queen's Gate, London, SW7 5JS

Tutti rehearsal at London Nautical School
2022-12-15 18:30 - 21:30 | London Nautical School, 61 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NA, United Kingdom

Berlioz, Blacher and Brahms
2022-11-28 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
Berlioz’s overture Le roi Lear (1831) – individual in style and tone, but bearing the influence of Beethoven – was written in Nice, shortly after the composer had visited Italy as the winner of the 1830 Prix de Rome. Berlioz had also recently discovered Shakespeare and based the work on King Lear.
The orchestra also performs Concertante Musik (1937) by the German composer Boris Blacher (1903-75). Known for his colourful, French-inspired instrumentation, Blacher was accused of writing “degenerate” music by the Nazis, but he became a key figure in the musical life of post-war Berlin.
Following the tortuous 20-year gestation of Brahms’s first symphony, his sunny, lyrical Symphony No.2 (1877) was written in the space of a single summer in the Austrian Alps and Bavaria’s Black Forest, in the bright, resonant key of D. Pastoral themes and a beautiful slow movement give way to a jubilant finale, frequently described as a Kehraus – the last dance at a ball.

Seating rehearsal at St John’s Smith Square
2022-11-28 17:30 - 18:30, 2022-10-17 17:30 - 18:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Stravinsky, Sibelius and Anna Clyne
2022-10-17 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
Sibelius’s tone poem The Oceanides (1913-14) depicts the nymphs in Greek mythology who inhabited the Mediterranean Sea. Building from a placid opening to a crashing climax, the piece was described on its première as “the finest evocation of the sea ever produced in music”.
This Midnight Hour (2014), by the British composer Anna Clyne, was inspired by poems by Juan Ramón Jiménez and Charles Baudelaire. The single-movement work has been variously described as “stormy”, “filmic”, a “tipsy dance” requiring out-of-tune strings to imitate an accordion, and “something Edith Piaf would have sung”.
The original 1911 version of Stravinsky’s Petrushka – scored for larger orchestra than his 1947 revision – tells the story of three puppets that come to life during a fair in 19th-century St Petersburg. The composer initially saw the piece as a concert work (including “diabolical cascades of arpeggios”), but was persuaded by Sergei Diaghilev to write a ballet, with Vaslav Nijinsky dancing the title role in the première.
Watch the composer Anna Clyne talk about her 2015 piece for orchestra, This Midnight Hour.

Tutti rehearsal at The Grey Coat Hospital School Sports Hall (St Michael's Site)
2022-10-13 18:30 - 21:30 | The Grey Coat Hospital School Sports Hall, Regency Street, St Michael's Site, 98 Regency Street, London, SW1P 4GH, United Kingdom

Rebecca Dale - Night Seasons
2022-10-04 18:30 - 21:30 | St Andrew’s Holborn, 5 St Andrew Street, London, EC4A 3AF, United Kingdom

Bacewicz, Shostakovich and Dvořák
2022-07-11 20:30 | Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom
Conductor Russell Keable leads Kensington Symphony Orchestra in Dvořák’s lyrical Symphony No.8. Writing the work at his summer residence in Bohemia, the composer aimed for a marked contrast from his stormy previous symphony, drawing inspiration from the folk music he loved.
The orchestra is joined by soloist Joseph Spooner for Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No.2, which marked the beginning of the composer’s late style. Written in Crimea, the work includes a theme based on an Odesa street song.
Spooner, who performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, has received widespread praise for his recordings, with his playing described as “ravishing” and “superb” by Gramophone and The Strad; “could not be better”, said International Record Review.
In Grażyna Bacewicz’s Overture for Orchestra, brass fanfares convey the sound of war, but the Polish composer included a message of hope, with timpani beating out the Morse code for “V”, symbolising victory.

Seating rehearsal at Cadogan Hall
2022-07-11 18:30 - 19:30 | Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom
5.30 Shostakovich
6.00 Dvorak
6.25 Bacewicz
6.30 Finish

Tutti rehearsal at The Grey Coat Hospital School Sports Hall (St Michael’s Site)
2022-07-10 12:00 - 18:00 | The Grey Coat Hospital School Sports Hall, Regency Street, St Michael's Site, 98 Regency Street, London, SW1P 4GH, United Kingdom
11.00 Shostakovich
1.00 Lunch
2.00 Bacewicz
2.20 Dvorak
5.00 Finish

Tutti rehearsal at The Grey Coat Hospital School (St Andrew’s Site)
2022-07-07 19:30 - 22:30 | The Grey Coat Hospital School, Greycoat Place SW1P 2DY, St Andrew's Site, Greycoat Place, London, SW1P 2DY, United Kingdom
6.30 Bacewicz
7.15 Dvorak
9.30 Finish

Tutti rehearsal at The Grey Coat Hospital School (St Andrew’s Site)
2022-06-30 19:30 - 22:30 | The Grey Coat Hospital School, Greycoat Place SW1P 2DY, St Andrew's Site, Greycoat Place, London, SW1P 2DY, United Kingdom
6.30 Dvorak
8.10 Shostakovich (with Joseph Spooner)
9.30 Finish

Tutti rehearsal at London Nautical School
2022-06-09 19:30 - 22:30 | London Nautical School, 61 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NA, United Kingdom
6.30 Bacewicz
7.00 Dvorak
8.00 Break
8.20 Shostakovich (with Joseph Spooner)
9.30 Finish

Belshazzar’s Feast
2022-05-14 20:30 | Fairfield Halls, Park Lane, Croydon, CR9 1DG, United Kingdom
Walton’s exuberant cantata Belshazzar’s Feast harnesses huge forces to tell the Biblical story of how the Jewish people regained their freedom from exile. Kensington Symphony Orchestra is joined by baritone Paul Sheehan and Epiphoni Consort for this richly orchestrated, jazz-influenced setting, commissioned by the BBC in 1929.
The concert opens with Strauss’s magnificently ambitious Festliches Präludium, while Sibelius’s ever-popular tone poem Finlandia, also performed with Epiphoni Consort, is paired with the composer’s Scènes historiques, Suite No.1 – patriotic music written amid growing Finnish nationalism in the face of Russian censorship.

Gershwin, Korngold and Prokofiev
2022-02-05 19:30 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Bruckner’s 5th Symphony
2021-11-29 19:30, 2000-03-18 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Helen Grime, Casella and Rachmaninov
2021-10-18 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Shostakovich’s 11th Symphony
2020-03-14 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
Bernstein’s Candide is an exuberant fusion of European operetta and Broadway musical. The overture bursts with energy and wit, building to an exhilarating climax based on ’Glitter and be Gay’, a brilliant pastiche of every coloratura aria ever composed.
Written in 1957 to mark the fortieth anniversary of the October Revolution, Shostakovich’s immensely successful Eleventh Symphony engaged both his sense of tragedy and his socialist conscience. At its centre it depicts with graphic realism the massacre of unarmed workmen in 1905. Preceded by a bleak introductory movement which sets the scene, it is followed by a haunting elegy for the dead and a final expression of revolutionary fervour.

James MacMillan and Brahms
2020-01-23 19:30 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom
Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.2 – a magnificent piece of musical architecture – is paired with the spiritual journey of MacMillan’s Symphony No.4.
Written on a grand scale, the symphonic Second Piano Concerto’s mellow and serene first movement is followed by an exhilarating tussle between piano and orchestra in the second. A solo cello shares the limelight in the lyrical slow movement, while the entertaining finale strews instantly memorable themes in profusion.
One of the leading composers of his generation, Scottish-born James MacMillan always aims at direct emotional and dramatic communication. Begun in 2014, his Fourth Symphony was written in homage to Robert Carver, the most important Scottish composer of the High Renaissance. In one continually evolving movement, the work explores the ’rituals of movement, exhortation, petition and joy’, with plaintive melodies, atmospheric string clusters and resplendent chorales.

Weber, Hindemith and Beethoven
2019-11-26 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
Weber’s Der Freischütz was his most successful opera, a masterpiece of German Romanticism. The overture immediately creates a magical atmosphere, wonderfully evoking with deft orchestral colouring both the supernatural and the rustic.
Completed before his opera about the German painter Mathias Grünewald, Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler Symphony is perhaps his greatest work. Its three movements each depict a panel from the painter’s famous Isenheim Altarpiece, the final section, with its brass chorale, being one of the composer’s most sensational achievements.
Subtitled the ’Pastoral’, Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony is his response to the countryside and despite a vivid depiction of a storm its five highly melodic movements are predominantly sunny.

Anna Clyne, Berg and Prokofiev
2019-10-07 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
Written for the 2013 Last Night of the Proms, Anna Clyne’s Masquerade magically evokes London’s 18th century pleasure gardens, where people from all walks of life mingled to enjoy a wide range of music and entertainment.
The Lulu Suite, taken from Berg’s unfinished operatic masterpiece about a doomed seductress, is an intense and concentrated combination of chilling passion and voluptuous richness.
Prokofiev’s loftily heroic Fifth Symphony, written at the end of the Second World War, was immediately acclaimed both in Russia and abroad. It was, the composer claimed, ’a symphony of the greatness of the human spirit, a song of praise of free and happy mankind’.

Kodály, Chris Long and Dvořák
2019-07-01 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Lyadov, Sibelius and Huw Watkins
2019-05-13 20:30 | Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom
Lyadov’s music inhabits a magical world, peopled with unearthly spirits. The Enchanted Lake grows from a rippling opening theme contrasted with more rhythmic ideas evoking the water nymphs who live there.
Huw Watkins says of his Symphony, written for the Hallé Orchestra who premiered it in 2017, that ‘the overall impression I hope the piece will generate is one of momentum and excitement’.
The vivid orchestration of Sibelius’s Four Legends conjures the atmosphere of the northern forests of the Kalevala, Finland’s great national epic, especially in the haunting second movement, depicting a swan gliding on a dark river – The Swan of Tuonela.

Enescu, Mahler and Lutosławski
2019-03-16 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Daphnis et Chloé at Queen Elizabeth Hall
2019-01-22 19:30 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom
Kensington Symphony Orchestra returns to the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Tuesday 22 January 2019 for a rare complete performance of Ravel’s ballet Daphnis et Chloé. The orchestra is joined by The Epiphoni Consort for the composer’s masterwork, a sweeping musical panorama that uses the full, vivid range of a symphony orchestra and chorus to depict the two eponymous lovers and the gang of pirates who abduct the heroine.
Award-winning pianist Richard Uttley is the soloist in Gershwin’s Romantic-style Concerto in F, in which the composer combines magnificently the popular rhythms of American jazz, the lively syncopations of the Charleston and the deep longing of the blues.
The concert opens with Kings Row by Korngold, who used the powerful, fanfare-like main theme of the 1942 film starring Ronald Reagan as the basis for the rest of his score for the movie, inspiring music for later films including John Williams’s soundtrack for Star Wars.

Holst, Rachmaninov and Vaughan Williams
2018-11-26 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
Ninety-five years after Holst’s opera The Perfect Fool (1918-22) received its première at London’s Covent Garden Theatre, music director Russell Keable presents the magical ballet music from the score, danced by the spirits of Earth, Water and Air.
Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances (1940) – the last piece the composer wrote – is stunningly scored, drawing out the tone colours of instruments including an alto saxophone, while Vaughan Williams’s Job: A Masque for Dancing (1931) marks a crucial point in the development of British ballet, with its radiant melodies inspired by William Blake’s illustrated edition of the Book of Job.

Americana ’18 at St John’s Smith Square
2018-10-15 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
This all-American programme opens with Tower’s vibrant Fanfare, a feminist answer to Copland. The Divertimento is vintage Bernstein, a joyful reminiscence of his musical childhood while Adams’s powerful Symphony is taken from his 2005 opera Doctor Atomic. The energetic drive of William Schuman’s buoyant Third Symphony which completes the programme, made it his first major success.

Delius, Bridge and Sibelius
2018-07-03 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Puccini's La bohème
2018-05-21 20:00 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Sponsored Play XVI
2018-04-29 13:00 - 19:00 | Westfield London, Ariel Way, London, W12 7GF, United Kingdom
Following the phenomenal success of its Sponsored Play at Westfield London (Shepherd’s Bush) in 2015, which raised more than £15,000 for War Child, Kensington Symphony Orchestra returns to Westfield on Sunday 29 April 2018 for another Sponsored Play, the third at Westfield London and the 16th in a series that began in 1989.
The format is simple: for six hours, between 70 and 100 musicians from KSO perform a continuous concert in front of Westfield’s shopping crowds, conducted by more than 25 volunteers from all walks of life, each of whom donates money in exchange for their few minutes of fame on the podium.

Bruckner’s 8th Symphony
2018-03-10 19:30, 1997-03-11 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Stravinsky and Schubert
2018-01-23 19:30 | Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom

Bach, Schoenberg and Brahms
2017-11-20 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Strauss, Joseph Phibbs and Stravinsky
2017-10-09 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
Kensington Symphony Orchestra returns to St John’s Smith Square for the first concert in the orchestra’s 2017/18 season, featuring Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Causing a riot at its first performance in 1913, this unrelenting, barbaric score still has the power to shock.
Conducted by music director Russell Keable, the concert opens with Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche: the composer Richard Strauss at his most witty and nimble, recounting a German folk hero’s “merry pranks”.
Joseph Phibbs’s Rivers to the Sea, commissioned by the Philharmonia Orchestra for its 2012 season, features four sharply contrasting movements, culminating in Neon with Sunrise, a celebration of New York.

Nielsen and Arnold
2017-07-03 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
Written to coincide with the Danish composer’s 60th birthday celebrations in 1925, the riotous, gripping Symphony No.6, “Sinfonia semplice” is Carl Nielsen’s final and, despite its title, most challenging symphony, moving from march to waltz to fanfare with boldness and bitter comic irony.
The concert, conducted by music director Russell Keable, opens with Nielsen’s 1927 overture An Imaginary Journey to the Faroe Islands, which was commissioned by the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen and uses Faroese melodies in its depiction of a sea crossing, followed by a rare performance of Malcolm Arnold’s 1954 score for the magical yet tragic one-act ballet Rinaldo and Armida.

KSO’s 60th Anniversary: Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony
2017-05-15 20:30 | Barbican Hall, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom
“Caitlin Hulcup sings with unassailable intensity… it seems that her voice could survive anything” Observer
“I was very impressed by Kiandra Howarth’s incredible voice” Placido Domingo
“For proof that the symphony is alive and well, look no further than Matthew Taylor” Gramophone
Chorus: The Epiphoni Consort, Pegasus Choir & Vox Cordis

Beethoven, Korngold and Brett Dean
2017-03-04 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
Kensington Symphony Orchestra is delighted to be joined by guest conductor Holly Mathieson for a typically ambitious and unusual programme of music at St John’s Smith Square.
Korngold’s opulent, full-blooded Symphony in F sharp boasts both glittering orchestration and an abundance of generous melody. Completed in 1952, it is the only symphony by the Austrian-born composer, who wrote Oscar-winning scores for Hollywood films after fleeing the Nazi regime. The work incorporates a theme originally written for the 1939 film The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, and the symphony stands as a memorial to the late US president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died in 1945.
The programme begins with Beethoven’s taut and intense Coriolan Overture, followed by a recent work by the award-winning Australian composer Brett Dean. Testament (2008), based on Dean’s 2002 work for 12 violas, takes its inspiration from the Heiligenstadt Testament, a letter written by a despairing Beethoven to his brothers after he learned that the deterioration in his hearing could not be reversed. Numerous innovative effects convey the composer’s state of mind; for example, the strings use both rosined and rosinless bows, the latter (generously provided by Thwaites of Watford) imitating the feverish sound of Beethoven’s quill.

Stravinsky and Bruckner
2017-01-23 19:30 | Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom

Debussy, Dutilleux and Berlioz
2016-11-21 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

John Adams, Colin Matthews and Bartók
2016-10-03 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Walton, Britten and Elgar
2016-06-27 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Janáček, Judith Weir and Martinů
2016-05-17 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Britten and Shostakovich
2016-03-12 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Moeran, Ravel and Vaughan Williams
2016-01-25 19:30 | Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom

Malcolm Williamson, Bliss and Copland
2015-11-23 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
Kensington Symphony Orchestra acknowledges the support of the Bliss Trust for this concert

Strauss, John McCabe and Mussorgsky
2015-10-12 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Dukas, Ibert, Chabrier and Roussel
2015-06-29 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Stravinsky, Beethoven and Seán Doherty
2015-05-19 20:30 | Milton Court, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DT, United Kingdom

Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Charlotte Bray
2015-03-14 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Sponsored Play XV
2015-02-15 12:00 - 18:00 | Westfield London, Ariel Way, London, W12 7GF, United Kingdom
After the phenomenal success of the 2013 sponsored play, KSO returns to Westfield London on Sunday 15 February 2015 for a six-hour charity fundraising marathon in aid of War Child.
For a suitable donation, you can have the chance to conduct a full-sized symphony orchestra in one of many exciting works. For full details of repertoire and how to book your place, see http://kso.org.uk/sponsored/

Heroes and Villains at Queen Elizabeth Hall
2015-01-19 19:30 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

A Concert in Memory of Leslie Head
2014-11-25 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Rachmaninov, Debussy and Lutosławski
2014-10-13 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Tchaikovsky, Kodály and Nielsen
2014-06-23 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Berlioz, Tippett and Brahms
2014-05-12 20:30 | Milton Court, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DT, United Kingdom

Arnold, Britten and Walton
2014-03-15 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

A Night of the Macabre
2014-01-20 19:30 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Nikolai Demidenko plays Prokofiev 3
2013-11-25 19:30 | Milton Court, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DT, United Kingdom

Bartók, Barber and John Adams
2013-10-15 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Lyadov, Dvořák and Matthew Taylor
2013-06-24 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Mahler’s 7th Symphony
2013-05-21 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
Mahler’s Seventh Symphony was poorly received by audiences in his own lifetime, who found it confusing. Certainly it is complex harmonically, and has something of a split personality, with its initial optimism and joy tempered by Mahler’s revisions, which were made following the death of his daughter and his own diagnosis of an incurable disease. But since then it has become far more popular and well known with audiences, even outside the concert hall with the opening theme of the second movement used in TV advertisements for Castrol GTX in the 1980s.

Glinka, Schoenberg and Rimsky-Korsakov
2013-03-09 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
Two great Russian classics, from Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov, are separated by Schoenberg’s own arrangement for string orchestra of his famous early work, Verklärte Nacht.

Sponsored Play XIV
2013-02-10 12:00 - 18:00 | Westfield London, Ariel Way, London, W12 7GF, United Kingdom
KSO returns to its tradition of sponsored plays in aid of charity in 2013, with a six hour marathon in support of War Child. The musical theme for the day is “Love and…”.
For a suitable donation, you can have the chance to conduct a full-sized symphony orchestra in one of the exciting works below.

A Night at the Oscars at Queen Elizabeth Hall
2013-01-21 19:30 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom
To celebrate their return to Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, KSO would like to invite you to ’A Night at the Oscars’, an evening of music from Oscar-winning films from throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
The programme ranges from arguably Max Steiner’s most famous film score, for Gone with the Wind, to memorable music from There will be blood by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood.
We also include works from the concert hall by Bernstein and Gershwin that are linked with Oscar-winning movies, as well as a suite from John Williams’s score for the original Star Wars movie. Something for everyone, and a night to remember!

Live Music for Ice-Skating at Westfield London
2012-12-12 19:00 | Westfield London, Ariel Way, London, W12 7GF, United Kingdom

Magnus Lindberg, Prokofiev and Schumann
2012-11-26 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
The concert opens with Magnus Lindberg’s Gran Duo, a dialogue between woodwind and brass that was described in The Times as “a darkly brooding yet peaceful work that reflects something of a unique landscape”. From this string-free Finnish vista, we bring the violin to the fore, welcoming back Gina McCormack as soloist in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2. We end with Schumann’s last symphony, his No. 4 in D minor.

Berlioz, Berg and Stravinsky
2012-10-15 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
We start our 57th season with an overture by Berlioz. His opera Benvenuto Cellini is nowadays very rarely performed, but its overture remains a popular and energetic concert opener. KSO’s first performance of a work by Berg follows: his Three Pieces for Orchestra, dedicated “to my teacher and friend Arnold Schoenberg in immeasurable gratitude and love”.
We end our concert with the original, full ballet version of Stravinsky’s Firebird, based on the legendary Russian creature that is both a blessing and a curse to its captor.

Edwardes Square Bicentenary Gala Concert
2012-06-16 20:30 | Edwardes Square, London, W8

Sibelius, Brahms and Peter Nagle
2012-06-11 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Puccini’s Tosca
2012-05-14 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Elgar, Walton and Janáček
2012-03-10 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Hindemith, Brahms and Dvořák
2012-01-24 19:30 | Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom

Arvo Pärt, Shostakovich and Vaughan Williams
2011-11-28 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Maxwell Davies, Rachmaninov and Stephen Goss
2011-10-17 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Smetana, Richard Ayres and Dvořák
2011-06-27 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Lutosławski and Mahler
2011-05-10 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Martinů, Stravinsky and Vaughan Williams
2011-03-12 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Poulenc, Rachmaninov and Beethoven
2011-01-25 19:30 | Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom

HK Gruber, Dukas and Tchaikovsky
2010-11-29 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Thomas Adès, David Matthews and Elgar
2010-10-19 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Wagner, Sibelius, Arnold and Nielsen
2010-06-21 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Schubert 8, Bruckner 9
2010-05-10 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Brett Dean, Britten and Holst
2010-03-20 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Dohnányi, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky
2010-01-20 19:30 | Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom

John McCabe, Janáček and Shostakovich
2009-11-23 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Debussy, Ullmann and Stravinsky
2009-10-17 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Elgar, Richard Strauss and Brahms
2009-06-23 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Mahler’s 9th symphony
2009-05-11 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Michael Torke, Ives, Gershwin and Copland
2009-03-07 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Fauré, Beethoven and Sibelius
2009-01-28 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Roberto Gerhard and Tchaikovsky
2008-11-25 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Ravel, Britten and Falla
2008-10-20 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Smetana, Myaskovsky and Dvořák
2008-06-24 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Richard Strauss and Robert Keeley
2008-05-12 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Korngold and Shostakovich
2008-03-08 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Stravinsky, Beethoven and Martinů
2008-01-22 19:30 | Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom

Sibelius 4, Schubert 9
2007-11-27 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Joby Talbot, Julian Anderson and Prokofiev
2007-10-15 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Dvořák, Sibelius and John Woolrich
2007-06-26 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Ravel, Shchedrin and Stravinsky
2007-05-14 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

An Evening with EMI Classics
2007-03-23 19:30 | Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London, SW1X 9DQ, United Kingdom
On the occasion of the 10th-anniversary of EMI Music Sound Foundation, Walter H.Z. de Villiers shares with us a whimsical and (hopefully) humorous diary entry… Not too obvious a pseudonym, hopefully! (Just a bit of self-protection!)
Went along to an EMI Classics bash on Friday (23 March 2007) at Cadogan Hall, London. Nice to be invited. Took a chum along – will call him ‘Chalky’ to also protect his identity: splendid chap, been involved in lots of record-industry things. Tells you what he thinks! Tickets and wristbands had been sent in advance. Wristbands? You needed one to gain access to the pre-concert Reception. Had a coffee with ‘Chalky’ beforehand when said wristbands were attached to, um, wrists! Had difficulty with mine (and even more difficulty getting it off – took kitchen-scissors to it when I got home). Nice do. The red wine I chose was excellent and the oft-circulated canapés were very tasty. Caught up with other chums, including those who keep one in gainful employment (if under a different name!).
You know how it is at a concert when you get annoyed by late-arriving members of the audience who have no doubt been to a reception … boot on other foot this time! Cadogan Hall full. Some well-known faces to be seen.
The excellent Kensington Symphony Orchestra was in position – do take in one of its concerts with long-standing conductor Russell Keable – and we were greeted by an EMI executive to begin the concert; didn’t quite catch his name – sorry – but he gave a witty introduction. Then Myleene Klass strolled on. Bright, confident, sassy, very nice really – wasn’t absolutely sure who she was though (but then I don’t watch Reality Shows or listen to Classic FM) although I did know she has been signed-up as a pianist to record for EMI. Anyway she introduced the “first act” – bet that’s the first time Russell Keable has been termed an “act”! Anyway, the KSO gave a rousing account of the Overture to Verdi’s opera “The Force of Destiny” – Russell Keable conducting his orchestra with typical musicality and the splendid boys and girls of this fine band responded likewise.
We then had, Myleene told us, Beethoven’s “Emperor Concert” (sic). The soloist was Thomas Kaurich, Head of EMI Classics. No celebrity pianist, Thomas is a graduate of the Juilliard School. He gave a poised, up-tempo performance that could have been more variegated and less hard-edged (at times) but he was certainly sensitive (slow movement) and had a fine sense of momentum (finale) – Russell and the KSO were attentive partners. Expected applause to break out after the first movement … gratifyingly, it didn’t. A lot of people stood at the end … why should such an upright position be thought of as ‘crawling’?!
We then had an interval. Bought ‘Chalky’ and myself an orange juice, one each actually – well, Chalky had bought the cappuccinos (sixth floor, Peter Jones, Sloane Square) – and we chatted with ‘Wilberforce’ (not his real name either!) who was on the (bottled) beer!
Back for Part 2 of the concert. Myleene, just signed to EMI Classics as a pianist (as I said), gave us a taster – a bit of floss by Michael Nyman (The heart asks pleasure first), which appears to be from his score for “The Piano”: so that was “The Piano” played on a piano (Myleene got that one out in her spoken intro). Don’t know what she is to record for EMI. She plays ‘nicely’ though, but she doesn’t need to turn to the audience and smile, unless she’s looking to hire herself out as a Liberace impersonator. Candelabra needed! After her solo, Myleene was still motivating the audience! ‘Chalky’ thought he was at a talent show on commercial telly – you know, where the programmes interrupt the previews and adverts! (BBC not excepted!)
Anyway, Myleene having put Natasha Marsh on the pedestal she didn’t need, on strides the 6-foot (that’s why said pedestal not needed!), all-legs, blonde, provocatively dressed Natasha. But, can she sing? Yes, not bad at all: nice voice, good phrasing, plenty of feeling. Good choice of opera arias (a better word than ‘songs’!) – by Catalani (from “La Wally”) and a rather beautiful example from Nino Rota’s “Romeo and Juliet”, which also featured a lovely flute solo from Mike Copperwhite (the ‘h’ missing from the programme’s listing of KSO-personnel). Has/will Natasha be stepping into fully staged opera with a demanding conductor and director? Or will she just be doing ‘bits of things’?
Then a chair was carried on and placed at an oblique angle, and strategically re-positioned by Russell. He was not provided with seating (told you he was long-standing!) while Natalie Clein stole the evening with some unaccompanied Bach and a (non-credited) arrangement for cello and orchestra of Rachmaninov’s Vocalise. ’Chalky’ thought Natalie was using gut strings – she might have been … lovely sound.
Then to Alfie Boe, introduced as “the finest tenor of his generation”. Well, I thought (uncharitably, maybe), such comment didn’t say much for the rest of them! This was after he had sung the tenor’s showpiece aria from Rossini’s “Stabat Mater” – quite nice but Alfie seems (live, I haven’t heard his new CD) a bit tight tonally, sometimes under the note, and rather literal. (‘Chalky’ was less impressed!) But, like Natasha, at least Alfie sang in the original language (Latin in the case of Rossini) and didn’t need a microphone. Then Alfie, with Myleene at the piano again, gave us “A Living Prayer” by Ron Block.
Finally, Natasha and Alfie brought the ‘Drinking Song’ from Verdi’s “La Traviata”. She carried a bottle of champagne and two glasses, both drank, and Alfie made some daft (not deft!) movements (when he wasn’t singing). Reasonably well done. But Verdi lost!
’Chalky’ (“I want to go”) and myself then left: it was the end of proceedings, as printed. The programme came with a CD, a sampler of the new recordings from Natalie, Natasha and Alfie.
Serious point. Why were we all there? Well, to celebrate the 10th-anniversary of EMI Music’s Sound Foundation, something of a well-kept secret, it seems. It is “an independent music education charity, established in 1997, whose aim is to improve young people’s access to music education.” Natalie spoke with passion about EMI’s enterprise. More about Sound Foundation from the following link.
So, please raise a glass to EMI’s initiative! And, thanks, EMI, and all the musicians, for an interesting evening.
Walter H. Z. de Villiers
www.classicalsource.com
About EMI Sound Foundation
EMI Music Sound Foundation is an independent music education charity, established in 1997 to improve young peoples’ access to music education in the UK & Ireland. The Foundation has helped over six thousand schools, young people and teachers improve their access to music through the purchase of musical instruments and equipment and bursaries to over 500 music students around the UK to help with fees and living costs. The charity has supported 36 specialist Performing Arts schools and has given over £6 million in donations, to date.
Find out more at www.emimusicsoundfoundation.com

Hindemith, Richard Strauss and Brahms
2007-03-10 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

KSO presents Film Music of the 80s and 90s
2007-01-15 19:30 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Arnold 1, Mahler 1
2006-11-28 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

KSO’s 50th anniversary concert
2006-10-18 20:30 | Barbican Hall, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom

Britten, Elgar and Hugh Wood
2006-06-24 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

William Alwyn, Colin Matthews and Bartók
2006-05-15 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Handel’s Messiah at Southwark Cathedral
2006-04-06 20:30 | Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, London, SE1 9DA, United Kingdom

Mahler’s 5th symphony
2006-03-18 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Tippett and Beethoven
2005-11-22 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Rachmaninov, Poul Ruders and Aulis Sallinen
2005-10-17 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Sibelius 6, Tchaikovsky 5
2005-06-28 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Bruckner’s 7th Symphony
2005-05-04 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Debussy, Ravel and Vaughan Williams
2005-03-07 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Verdi’s Requiem with the London Oriana Choir
2005-02-13 19:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Lloyd Webber Symphonic Musicals
2005-02-05 19:30 | Henry Wood Hall, Trinity Church Square, London, SE1 4HU, United Kingdom

KSO presents Film Music of the 70s
2005-01-17 19:30 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Beethoven, Richard Strauss and Joby Talbot
2004-12-06 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Errollyn Wallen’s Spirit Symphony with KSO & BBC Concert Orchestra
2004-11-05 19:30 | Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Messiaen, Saint-Saëns and Eric Tanguy
2004-10-23 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Dvořák and Elgar
2004-06-29 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Britten, Shostakovich and John Woolrich
2004-05-10 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Stravinsky, Webern and Beethoven
2004-03-13 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Henry Walford Davies’s Everyman
2004-02-09 19:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Chabrier, Tchaikovsky and Korngold
2004-01-13 19:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Knussen and Lutosławski
2003-12-01 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Ravel, Rachmaninov and David Matthews
2003-10-18 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Rachmaninov and Sibelius
2003-06-24 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Beethoven, Tippett and Dvořák
2003-05-03 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Mahler’s 10th Symphony
2003-03-15 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

KSO presents Film Music of the 60s
2003-01-21 19:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Shchedrin, Woolrich and Mussorgsky
2002-12-03 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Donatoni, Wagner and Stravinsky
2002-10-01 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Bax, Dvořák and James MacMillan
2002-06-25 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Two operas in concert: Violanta and Faust et Hélène
2002-05-06 20:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Brahms 4, McCabe 4
2002-03-01 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Walton, Elgar and Britten
2002-01-14 19:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Respighi, Bartók and Stravinsky
2001-11-01 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Webern, Richard Strauss and Shostakovich
2001-10-23 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Glazunov, Tchaikovsky and Robin Holloway
2001-06-25 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Beethoven 4, Sibelius 1
2001-05-09 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Bartók and Mahler
2001-03-10 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

KSO presents Film Music of the 50s
2001-01-15 19:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Honegger 4, Rachmaninov 2
2000-12-04 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Walton, Richard Strauss and Stravinsky
2000-10-23 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Lutosławski, Sibelius and Brahms
2000-06-19 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Janáček and Prokofiev
2000-05-01 20:30 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Nielsen, Gershwin and Michael Torke
2000-01-11 19:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Dukas, Berlioz and John Woolrich
1999-11-29 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Maxwell Davies, Copland and Richard Strauss
1999-10-18 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Tchaikovsky, Barber and Dvořák
1999-06-21 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Elgar, Stravinsky, David Matthews and Russell Keable
1999-05-24 20:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Mahler’s 6th Symphony
1999-03-13 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

KSO presents Film Music of the 30s and 40s
1999-01-11 19:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Die Walküre Act I in concert
1998-11-02 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Rachmaninov, Walton and Richard Strauss
1998-10-05 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

A Leroy Anderson Celebration
1998-06-30 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

John Adams, Prokofiev and Copland
1998-05-01 20:30 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Nielsen, Sibelius and Beethoven
1998-03-14 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Nikolai Demidenko plays Rachmaninov's 3rd piano concerto
1998-01-12 19:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Wagner, Schoenberg and Mahler
1997-11-21 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Shostakovich and Richard Strauss
1997-10-18 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Dvořák’s 8th Symphony
1997-06-23 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Bartók, Richard Strauss and Edward Longstaff
1997-05-20 20:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Kensington Strings at St Paul’s Knightsbridge
1997-04-09 20:30 | St Paul’s Knightsbridge, 32a Wilton Place, London, SW1X 8SH, United Kingdom

Sibelius, Brahms and Robert Simpson
1997-01-20 19:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Berlioz, Stravinsky and Beethoven
1996-12-03 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Bliss, Falla, Debussy and Stravinsky
1996-10-15 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

KSO’s 40th Anniversary Concert
1996-07-02 20:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Bernstein, Hanson, Barber and Copland
1996-05-20 20:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Nielsen, Lutosławski and Nicholas Sackman
1996-03-12 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Korngold’s Die tote Stadt
1996-01-14 19:15 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom
Reviews of the UK premiere performance of Korngold’s opera Die tote Stadt:
‘A feast of brilliant playing and singing […] Outstanding performances by Christine Teare (Marietta), Ian Caley (Paul) and the Kensington Symphony Orchestra’
London Evening Standard
‘Keable and his orchestra did magnificently’
The Guardian
‘The rapture of the capacity audience was predictable […] there was never a dull moment’
The Independent
‘The orchestra performed miracles of virtuosity. As one member of the audience put it, after the last transfigured chords died away – ‘Wow!’ Wow indeed’
Opera Now
‘The Kensington Symphony Orchestra, under its able and unflappable conductor Russell Keable, played the gargantuan score extraordinarily well’
Sunday Telegraph

Hovhaness, Martin and Beethoven
1995-11-01 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Shostakovich 15, Tchaikovsky 4
1995-10-17 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Pelléas et Mélisande
1995-09-04 20:30

Stravinsky, Mahler and Judith Weir
1995-07-03 20:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Kensington Sinfonietta at Chelsea Festival
1995-06-05 20:30 | St Luke’s Chelsea, Sydney Street, London, SW3 6NH, United Kingdom

Tippett and Berlioz
1995-05-15 20:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Holst, Sullivan and Benedict Mason
1995-03-03 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Walton, Shostakovich and Robert Simpson
1995-01-13 19:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Sibelius, Tavener and Rachmaninov
1994-12-02 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Sponsored Play 1993 - Tchaikovsky!
1994-10-30 10:00 | Whiteleys, 149 Queensway, London, W2 4BF

Schumann, Beethoven and Dvořák
1994-10-10 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Ibert and Ravel
1994-09-05 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Havering 1994
1994-07-09 20:30 | Bedfords Park, Havering, Broxhill Road, Havering-atte-Bower, Romford, RomfoRM4 1QH, United Kingdom

Debussy, Tchaikovsky and Bartók
1994-06-21 20:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Beethoven, Stravinsky and Mozart
1994-04-25 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Glinka, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov
1994-03-08 19:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Grieg, Nielsen and Sibelius
1994-02-10 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Brahms, Beethoven and Dvořák
1994-01-13 19:30, 1993-01-13 19:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Sponsored Play 1994 - First Symphonies
1993-10-31 10:00 | Whiteleys, 149 Queensway, London, W2 4BF

Beethoven, Bartók and Brahms
1993-10-18 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Dvořák’s Dimitrij
1993-07-13 20:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Nielsen, Britten and Sibelius
1993-05-31 20:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Beethoven and Stravinsky
1993-03-30 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Verdi, Tchaikovsky and Dvořák
1993-02-07 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Mahler, Tippett and Arvo Pärt
1992-12-01 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Sponsored Play 1992 - Sixes & Sevens
1992-10-25 10:00 | Whiteleys, 149 Queensway, London, W2 4BF

Dvořák, Korngold and Brahms
1992-10-03 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Rawsthorne, Britten and Elgar
1992-07-14 20:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Prokofiev and Mahler
1992-05-10 20:30 | All Hallows, Gospel Oak, Savernake Road, London, NW3 2JP, United Kingdom

Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Fauré and Poulenc
1992-04-04 20:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Beethoven, Strauss and Britten
1992-03-28 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Elgar and Bruckner
1992-02-08 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Berlioz and Massenet
1991-12-06 19:30 | St Michael’s School, Graham Terrace, London, SW1W 8HN, United Kingdom

Janáček, Sibelius and Debussy
1991-11-02 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Sponsored Play 1991
1991-10-20 11:00 | Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, United Kingdom

Haydn, Mozart and Schubert
1991-09-28 20:30 | St James’s Clerkenwell, Sekforde Street, London, EC1R 0EG, United Kingdom

Weill and Mahler
1991-07-10 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Paul Parkinson
1991-05-27 20:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

First Symphonies by Honegger and Rachmaninov
1991-03-23 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Vaughan Williams 5, Walton 1
1991-02-10 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Falla and Dvořák
1990-12-07 19:30 | St Michael’s School, Graham Terrace, London, SW1W 8HN, United Kingdom

Sibelius, Nielsen and Beethoven
1990-11-03 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Sponsored Play 1990
1990-10-21 11:00 | School of Pharmacy, 29-39 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AX

Dvořák’s cello concerto with Alexander Baillie
1990-07-17 20:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Tippett and Brahms
1990-05-31 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Vaughan Williams, Elgar and Sibelius
1990-03-27 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Suk, Schumann and Martinů
1990-02-06 19:30 | St Michael’s School, Graham Terrace, London, SW1W 8HN, United Kingdom

Debussy, Beethoven and Bartók at Southwark Cathedral
1989-11-03 19:30 | Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, London, SE1 9DA, United Kingdom

Sponsored Play I
1989-07-09 11:00 | School of Pharmacy, 29-39 Brunswick Square, London, WC1N 1AX

Copland, Barber, Harris and Gershwin
1989-07-04 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Haydn 99, Mahler 6
1989-05-27 20:30 | Hammersmith Town Hall, King Street, London, W6 9JU, United Kingdom

Hindemith, Mozart and Stravinsky
1989-03-18 19:30 | Hammersmith Town Hall, King Street, London, W6 9JU, United Kingdom

Tippett, Stravinsky and Rachmaninov
1989-02-01 19:30 | Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, London, SE1 9DA, United Kingdom

Elgar, Debussy and Berlioz
1988-10-29 19:30 | Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, London, SE1 9DA, United Kingdom

Beethoven, Sibelius and Brahms
1988-07-09 20:30 | Hammersmith Town Hall, King Street, London, W6 9JU, United Kingdom

Weber, Berg and Strauss
1988-06-04 20:30 | Hammersmith Town Hall, King Street, London, W6 9JU, United Kingdom

Berlioz, Roussel and Shostakovich
1988-03-20 19:30 | Hammersmith Town Hall, King Street, London, W6 9JU, United Kingdom

Beethoven and Stravinsky
1988-02-06 19:30 | Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, London, SE1 9DA, United Kingdom

Chausson, Szymanowski, Debussy and Poulenc
1987-12-12 19:30 | Hammersmith Town Hall, King Street, London, W6 9JU, United Kingdom

Smetana, Bartók and Tchaikovsky
1987-10-30 19:30 | Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, London, SE1 9DA, United Kingdom

Grande messe des morts
1987-07-18 20:30 | Ely Cathedral, The College, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4DL, United Kingdom

Wagner and Mahler
1987-06-20 20:30 | Hammersmith Town Hall, King Street, London, W6 9JU, United Kingdom

Berlioz Te Deum
1987-04-04 20:30 | Hornsey Town Hall, The Broadway, London, N8 9JJ, United Kingdom

Dvořák and Rachmaninov
1987-03-29 20:30 | Hammersmith Town Hall, King Street, London, W6 9JU, United Kingdom

Bernstein, Bloch and Copland
1987-02-07 19:30 | Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, London, SE1 9DA, United Kingdom

KSO’s 30th Anniversary Concert
1986-10-30 19:45 | Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Beethoven and Brahms
1986-06-28 20:30 | St Mark’s Regents Park, St Mark's Square, London, NW1 7TN, United Kingdom

Smythe, Walton and Elgar
1986-05-31 20:30 | St Paul’s Hammersmith, Queen Caroline Street, London, W6 9PJ, United Kingdom

Bruckner and Martinů
1986-03-01 19:30 | St Paul’s Hammersmith, Queen Caroline Street, London, W6 9PJ, United Kingdom

Sibelius, Beethoven and Brahms
1986-02-01 19:30 | Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge, London, SE1 9DA, United Kingdom

Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel
1985-12-13 19:30 | St Michael’s School, Graham Terrace, London, SW1W 8HN, United Kingdom

Strauss, Britten and Prokofiev
1985-11-02 19:30 | St Paul’s Hammersmith, Queen Caroline Street, London, W6 9PJ, United Kingdom

Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony
1985-06-01 20:30 | St Paul’s Hammersmith, Queen Caroline Street, London, W6 9PJ, United Kingdom

Fricker, Bax and Moeran
1985-05-09 20:30 | St Peter’s Eaton Square, 119 Eaton Square, London, SW1W 9AL

Mahler’s 7th Symphony
1985-02-16 19:30 | St Paul’s Hammersmith, Queen Caroline Street, London, W6 9PJ, United Kingdom

Ireland, Bruch and Dvořák
1984-11-03 19:30 | St Peter’s Eaton Square, 119 Eaton Square, London, SW1W 9AL

Delius, Harty, Britten and Bax
1984-02-07 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

The Music of Arthur Bliss
1979-03-02 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Verdi’s Requiem
1977-06-11 20:30 | Westminster Central Hall, Storey's Gate, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Leslie Head conducts Bax and Baines premières
1974-03-05 00:00 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Kensington Orchestral and Choral Society
1973-11-22 19:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom
http://www.concertprogrammes.org.uk/html/search/verb/GetRecord/8178/

Brian’s Symphony No.2 at St John’s Smith Square
1973-05-24 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Brian’s Symphony No.2 at Victoria Hall, Hanley
1973-05-21 20:30 | Victoria Hall, Hanley, Bagnall Street, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, ST1 3AD, United Kingdom

Brian’s Symphony No.2 at Brighton Dome
1973-05-19 20:30 | Brighton Dome, Church Street, Brighton, BN1 1UE

Havergal Brian World Premières
1971-01-28 20:30 | Smith Square Hall, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Walton, Stanford, Brian and Bax
1969-12-11 21:00 | Kensington Town Hall, Kensington High Street, London, W8

Puccini’s La rondine
1965-12-09 19:30 | Fulham Town Hall, 553-561 Fulham Road, London, SW6 1ES, United Kingdom

Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco
1963-11-04 19:30 | Kensington Town Hall, Kensington High Street, London, W8

Prokofiev and Alan Bush
1962-06-06 21:00 | Friends House, 173 - 177 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ, United Kingdom

Bliss’s Beatitudes at Westminster Central Hall
1962-02-16 19:30 | Westminster Central Hall, Storey's Gate, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Mahler and Vaughan Williams
1962-02-10 19:30 | Westminster Central Hall, Storey's Gate, London, SW1P 3HA, United Kingdom

Bruckner, Britten and Stravinsky
1961-07-05 21:00 | St Pancras Town Hall, 5 Judd Street, London, WC1H 9JE

Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder
1961-03-13 20:00 | Friends House, 173 - 177 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ, United Kingdom

Bellini, Menotti and Villa-Lobos British premières
1960-04-11 21:00 | St Pancras Town Hall, 5 Judd Street, London, WC1H 9JE
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Berlioz, Brahms and Sibelius
1959-03-09 19:30 | St Pancras Town Hall, 5 Judd Street, London, WC1H 9JE

Opera Concert at St Pancras Town Hall
1958-05-22 20:30 | St Pancras Town Hall, 5 Judd Street, London, WC1H 9JE
http://opera.archive.netcopy.co.uk/article/may-1958/70/opera-calendar-programmes-subject-to-alteration

Vaughan Williams, Sibelius, Beethoven and Elgar
1958-03-28 20:00 | Holy Trinity Brompton, Brompton Road, London, SW7 1JA, United Kingdom
Date uncertain – could alternatively be Thursday 28 March 1963

Puccini centenary concert
1958-02-17 20:00 | St James’s Piccadilly, 197 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9LL

Puccini’s Messa di Gloria
1957-06-13 21:00 | St James’s Piccadilly, 197 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9LL

Berlioz, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Walton
1956-12-05 19:45 | Queen Alexandra’s House, Bremner Road, Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2QT, United Kingdom

Concert in Aid of the Hungarian Relief Fund
1956-12-03 19:30 | Hove Town Hall, Norton Road, Hove, BN3 4AH
