Spectacle and intimacy await in new classical season

It begins on September 30 with Nottingham Classics’ resident orchestra, the Hallé, performing Rachmaninov’s expansive 2nd Symphony, conducted by the orchestra’s recently appointed Principal Conductor, Kahchun Wong, who made a big impression on his first visit to the Royal Concert Hall last season. Kahchun also conducts the Hallé in Beethoven’s revolutionary ‘Eroica’ Symphony on Tuesday 10 February. There’s more Beethoven from the Warsaw Philharmonic on Wednesday May 20 when his propulsive 7th Symphony is part of a programme that also includes Chopin’s Romantic 2nd Piano Concerto, performed by the effervescent Romanian-British virtuoso, Alexandra Dariescu.

Soloists in the season cover a wide range of instruments, including Dani Howard’s athletic Trombone Concerto performed on Friday November 7 by Peter Moore, the youngest winner of BBC Young Musician 2008, when just 12 years old. Another champion soloist makes his Nottingham debut when Leeds International Piano Competition winner Alim Beisenbayev performs Prokofiev’s finger-crunching 2nd Piano Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto features in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s concert on Wednesday October 15, and lovers of the cello can enjoy a trio of contrasting concertos by Elgar, Shostakovich and Anna Clyne across the season. Multiple prize-winning guitarist Thibaut Garcia takes on Rodrigo’s ever-popular Concierto de Aranjuez on Thursday April 16, joining the Galicia Symphony Orchestra – the first Spanish orchestra to visit Nottingham for many a year – for a colourful mix of French and Spanish twentieth-century classics.

Perhaps the most anticipated concerto performance in the season comes on Saturday January 10 when three members of Nottingham’s world-famous Kanneh-Mason family – Braimah (violin), Sheku (cello) and Isata (piano) join forces with Sinfonia Viva for Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. That performance includes more local interest with Nottingham Harmonic Choir performing Brahms’s Shicksalslied and Vaughan Williams’ visionary Toward the Unknown Region. Choral music also features on Wednesday March 25 when the combined choirs of the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University perform Verdi’s dramatic Requiem with the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Towering above the season on Friday January 23 is the brooding presence of Bluebeard’s Castle. Bartók’s bloodstained operatic masterpiece gets a rare performance from the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert hall staging with atmospheric, theatrical lighting.

Complementing the Orchestral Series is the Sunday Piano Series which, this season, welcomes back many audience favourites from previous seasons, including Van Cliburn competition prize-winner Rachel Cheung and Leeds International Piano Competition winner Anna Tsybuleva.

Neil Bennison, who leaves the role of Music Programme Manager at the Royal Concert Hall at the end of this summer, said: “After 17 rewarding years working on Nottingham Classics, it will feel strange not to be here in 2025-2026 but I’m hopefully signing off with a programme that matches the best of previous Nottingham Classics seasons, with plenty of popular and powerful orchestral spectacle, immersive and intimate solo performances, and a few fun surprises to keep everyone interested.”

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