In this special summer concert, Hull Chamber Music is thrilled to welcome renowned pianist Margaret Fingerhut in a fundraising recital in aid of Ukraine.
This concert will help to raise funds for the British-Ukrainian Aid. So far Margaret has successfully raised enough money to buy two ambulances for Ukraine, and is now aiming to buy a third one.
“Around the World in 88 Piano Keys” is a piano travelogue that takes the audience on a whistle-stop tour across the globe. It is a dazzling array of composers familiar and not-so-familiar, which Margaret personally introduces from the keyboard.
“One of the most radiantly musical of pianists, she plays with such alluring sensitivity & effortless command that one cannot help but be won over” – International Piano
Margaret Fingerhut was born in London of Ukrainian and Polish ancestry. Described by Gramophone as a pianist of “consummate skill and thrilling conviction”, her distinguished career has taken her to many countries across the globe. She is particularly known for her innovative recital programmes in which she explores the highways and byways of the piano repertoire.
Hull Amnesty Group presents an evening of classical music in support of Amnesty International at the Judy Dench Theatre, Hymers College.
Gillian Blair (saxophone) and Elinor Nicholson (harp) formed the Polaris Duo in 2011 whilst studying at the Royal Northern College of Music.
They have since been exploring an eclectic range of repertoire and possibilities for this unusual combination of saxophone and harp.
Tickets available on the door.
Beethoven’s Symphony No.7
Conductor: Steven Mercurio
Violin: Chloë Hanslip
Smetana: Má Vlast: ‘Vltava’ (The Moldau)
Dvořák: Violin Concerto
Dvořák: Two Slavonic Dances
Beethoven: Symphony No.7
We are delighted to welcome the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director Steven Mercurio to Hull City Hall. The programme opens with ‘Vltava’ from Smetana’s Má Vlast – an evocative orchestral picture of the river that flows through Prague, filled with ebbing and flowing woodwind and strings.
Dvořák’s music also paints a picture of his Czech home. His ‘Slavonic Dances’ and ‘Violin Concerto’ are filled with joyful interpretations of traditional folk tunes.
Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No.7’ resounds with a wonderful blend of gravitas and rising melodies, with the fourth and final movement launching into a frantic fanfare that makes for a spectacular showpiece to end the concert.
Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
Conductor: Jordan de Souza
Piano: Nicholas McCarthy
Vaughan Williams: The Wasps: Overture, Entr’acte and Finale
Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.4
When the pianist Paul Wittgenstein lost his right hand in the First World War, he asked Ravel to write him something he could play with his left hand alone. The result is a masterpiece that glitters like a rare diamond. Played tonight by one of its most brilliant living champions, Nicholas McCarthy, it is the smouldering heart of a concert that begins in the English countryside as depicted by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and ends with Tchaikovsky at his most impassioned.
Film Music Through the Decades
Walton: Spitfire Prelude
Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Strauss: ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ from 2001 A Space Odyssey
Williams: Star Wars Suite
Williams: Theme from Schindler’s List
Shore: Lord of the Rings Symphonic suite
Giacchino: Music from The Incredibles
Thrill to the finest film music from some of the greatest composers of the last 80 years. Take to the skies over war-torn Europe or travel to new galaxies in the fight against the evil Empire. Live the heartbreak of star-crossed lovers. Retrace the quest from Middle Earth to the dragon fire of Mount Doom. Our final concert line up brings something for everybody to enjoy in a programme celebrating the music of the silver screen.
España
Conductor: Delyana Lazarova
Guitar: Craig Ogden
Chabrier: España – Rhapsody for Orchestra
Granados: Spanish Dance No.5, ‘Andaluza’
Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez
Albéniz: Asturias (Leylenda)
De Falla: The Three Cornered Hat: Suite No.1
Piazzolla: Libertango
Bizet: Carmen: Suite No.1
Conductor Delyana Lazarova will guide us through the sights and sounds of Spain, with a concert that begins with Chabrier’s ‘España’. Bizet shows his flair in his opera, Carmen, the colourful ‘Suite No.1’ concluding with the famous ‘Toreadors’ March’ which ends this concert. But to capture the country’s soul, turn to a Spaniard: Rodrigo’s ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’, performed by guitarist Craig Ogden. The concert also includes music from three more great Spanish composers: Granados, Albéniz, and Piazzolla.
Northern Lights
Soloist: Simon Callaghan
Wagner: Overture: The Flying Dutchman
Grieg: Piano concerto in A minor
Sibelius: Symphony No 2
Hull Philharmonic Orchestra look to the north in a programme of stirring music inspired by the landscape and legends of northern Europe and Scandinavia. Pianist Simon Callaghan, who has been praised for his “velvet-gloved pianism of ravishing sensitivity,” makes a welcome return to the city to perform one of the repertoire’s best loved and most exhilarating piano works.
Dvořák’s ‘New World’ Symphony
Conductor: Shiyeon Sung
Cello: Zlatomir Fung (RPO Artist-in-Residence, 2023–24)
Beethoven: Leonore Overture No.3
Haydn: Cello Concerto in C major
Dvořák: Symphony No.9, ‘From the New World’
Don’t mention the Hovis ad – if you can even remember it – because with its great tunes, grand emotions and sweeping drama – Dvořák’s Symphony No.9, ‘From the New World’ was a favourite with audiences the world over long before TV even existed. It’s the exuberant ending to a concert that begins with Beethoven’s mighty musical drama of courage, struggle and freedom – the soul-stirring Leonore Overture No.3. RPO Artist-in-Residence Zlatomir Fung then brings all his brilliance, grace and wit to Joseph ‘Papa’ Haydn’s perfectly-cut jewel of a cello concerto. We warmly welcome conductor Shiyeon Sung, who has been described as ‘a real trailblazer’; together with Beethoven, Haydn, Dvořák and the full RPO, she promises to bring pure sunshine to a February night in the heart of Hull.
Sibelius’ Violin Concerto
Conductor: Tito Muñoz
Violin: Francesca Dego
Ida Moberg Sunrise Orchestral Suite: Sunrise
Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Grieg Lyric Pieces: Wedding Day at Troldhaugen
Shostakovich: Symphony No.9
“I need the sound of the trampling of steel-shod boots”, Shostakovich told the first performers of his Ninth Symphony – but this audacious, irreverent mini-masterpiece certainly wasn’t the victory march that the Soviet authorities were expecting at the end of the Second World War. Great music never plays by the rules, and this is a concert full of wonderful surprises. Dynamic conductor, Tito Muñoz, joins superstar violinist Francesca Dego in a song of fire and ice: Sibelius’ windswept, wildly romantic Violin Concerto.
Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto
Conductor: Leslie Suganandarajah
Piano: Mark Bebbington
Louise Farrenc Overture No.1
Beethoven Piano Concerto No.5, ‘Emperor’
Brahms Symphony No.4
Although they called her the ‘female Beethoven’, the nineteenth-century French composer Louise Farrenc was very much her own woman, and it is only now in the twenty-first century are we rediscovering her ardently romantic, strikingly original music. Her stirring Overture is a concert charged with poetry and emotion. Mark Bebbington joins the orchestra for Beethoven’s fifth, popularly known as the ‘Emperor’. We then voyage to the raging storms and sunset colours of Brahms’s mighty final symphony, with conductor Leslie Suganandarajah.
Senbla presents Opera International’s award-winning Ellen Kent Production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at Hull City Hall.
Featuring the Ukrainian National Opera of Kharkiv in collaboration with the Ukrainian Opera & Ballet Theatre Kyiv, with international soloists, highly-praised chorus and full orchestra.
Back by overwhelming public demand, this award-winning Opera returns in a new production with exquisite sets including a spectacular Japanese garden and fabulous costumes including antique wedding kimonos from Japan.
One of the world’s most popular operas, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly tells the heart-breaking story of the beautiful young Japanese girl who falls in love with an American naval lieutenant – with dramatic results.
Highlights include the melodic ‘Humming Chorus’, the moving aria ‘One Fine Day’ and the unforgettable ‘Love Duet’.
Senbla presents Opera International’s award-winning Ellen Kent Production of Bizet’s Carmen at Hull City Hall.
Featuring the Ukrainian National Opera of Kharkiv in collaboration with the Ukrainian Opera & Ballet Theatre Kyiv, with international soloists, highly-praised chorus and full orchestra.
An evening of passion, sexual jealousy, death and unforgettable arias.
This dazzling production with orchestra features Bizet’s unforgettable melodies including ‘The Toreador’s Song’, Carmen’s enticing ‘Habanera’, and Don José’s lyrical ‘Flower Song’ in a setting evoking the stunning architecture of Seville and its main square with Roman and Moorish influences.
The award-winning Daniel Martinez Flamenco Company returns to Hull with another spell-binding flamenco show full of emotion, passion and grit.
Back by popular demand, the audience will enjoy compositions from Daniel’s Herald Angel Award winning production Art of Believing as well as other unseen pieces full of music, singing and dance.
If you’re looking to enjoy authentic flamenco from the heart, look no further than the Daniel Martinez Flamenco Company and their spectacular dancer and musicians.
Resident conductor and artistic advisor of the London Mozart Players, Jonathan Bloxham, takes the orchestra for a spin in a traditional New Year celebration, packed with waltzes, marches and polkas by the Strauss Family and more. Soprano Alexandra Lowe (Fiordiligi in Opera North’s New Year Così fan tutte) joins the ensemble in arias and song.
A traditional selection of Strauss Family polkas, marches and waltzes is sprinkled with romantic delights from Dvořák and Brahms, a Gershwin gem to mark the composer’s 125th year, and some treats from the Strausses’ spiritual heir, Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The ‘Blue Danube’ and ‘T’he Radetzky March’ return to the source to complete an essential celebration.
It starts with a casual bet. The wily cynic Don Alfonso wagers that the fiancées of two young men, complacent in their romantic notions of love, won’t stay faithful for a minute if put to the test. It sounds harmless enough and, anyway, the lovers are entirely sure of themselves. But there is cruelty in this game of love and chance.
It’s difficult to think of an opera that contains more music of sheer beauty than Così fan tutte – or has a libretto that is more unsettling. The plot is a work of supreme artifice, yet the opera charts the boundaries of real and feigned emotion, trust and deception, loyalty and desire, with unsparing accuracy and truthfulness. Tim Albery’s beautiful, thoughtful, 18th Century styled production is set firmly in a pitiless Age of Reason.
