Guildford Symphony Orchestra Celebrates 100 Years Of Music Making

Published on: 1 Nov, 2019
Updated on: 22 Oct, 2019

Guildford’s own orchestra, the GSO, will perform a grand centenary concert at G Live on Saturday, November 16, to celebrate 100 years of music making.

Echoing the programme of its first concert on October 8, 1919, when the orchestra electrified the audience with a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No 8, this centenary programme features Beethoven’s Symphony No 9, the Choral Symphony.

From the start, the GSO collaborated with the even older Guildford Choral Society, founded in 1839, and the two musical organisations will be performing together once again for the final movement of the Beethoven Symphony No 9, when instruments meld with voices for a series of variations on a setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy, ending as the massed musicians and singers restate the theme of universal brotherhood in an exultant, ecstatic blaze of sound.

Soloist Joo Yeon Sir.

The programme also includes Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, played by one of the GSO’s favourite soloists, Joo Yeon Sir, who was first talent spotted by GSO musical director Darrel Davison. Concertgoers may remember her performance of the Sibelius Violin Concert in 2017.

The programme also features the Die Meistersinger Overture by Wagner and Handel’s Zadok the Priest.

Starting at 7.30pm, GSO promises a night of wonderful celebratory music.

Tickets are available from G Live. Call 02483 369350 or visit www.glive.co.uk.