Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra Concert Season 2024 to 2025

There’s not a single Mozart, Beethoven or Haydn. Instead we’ve got imaginative pairings - a programme of wildly inventive combinations, featuring many modern composers.

The familiar Tchakovsky piano concerto with Stravinsky’s scandalous Rite of Spring; Evelyn Glennie on percussion instruments—marimba, xylophone, and timpani, with works from the Orkneys to ancient Persia.

All concerts perform in the Brighton Dome, except for 16 November at the Corn Exchange, performing18th century Bach’s keyboard concerto combined with with current composer Astor Piazzolla’s tango.

There’s Duke Ellington’s jazz, with gifted composer and pianist Gwilym Simcock appearing in person; Ebulliant saxophonist Jess Gillam with Sibelius, Glazunov, and Gôrecki’s “Symphony of Sorrowful songs”.

British composers Elgar with the familiar Enigma Variations combined with William Walton’s outrageous Belshazzar’s Feast, sung by mane-haired, baritone Cody Quattlebaum.

No New Year’s Eve concert, but Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” at St George’s Church, Kemptown on 14 December.

Messiaen’s Turangalila Symphony ends this 100th Anniversary Brighton Philharmonic season with the whacky, ethereal sounding ondes martenot. It’s an early electronic instrument, resembling a cross between an organ and a theremin.

Not for a minute can we be complacent about what we’re in for in this imaginative series - compiled by Artistic Director Joanna MacGregor CBE, who took over in 2019. She’s giving the orchestra new life and an agenda aimed at young audiences who are, after all, the future.

The programme brochure is available in libraries, at the Brighton Dome and via the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra’s website. There are limited £12 LoveMusic tickets on offer, for a chosen selection of concerts, two days before a concert. Quote discount code LoveMusic.

Tickets: Brighton Dome Ticket Office 01273 709709; brightondome.org, or in person at Church Street, Brighton BN1 1UE.