Part of our wider classical offering at Portsmouth Guildhall.
We’re delighted to go on sale with the newest season from the wonderful Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra! These shows will be part of our wider classical series at the Portsmouth Guildhall for 2023/2024 which already includes the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The Spectacular Music of Harry Potter, and The South Coast Symphonia.
Book your tickets now for the opportunity to see some of the world’s most well-known classical music performed by a sensational orchestra!
Eastern Promise
12th October 2023 – BOOK NOW
Borodin spent eight years composing his Second Symphony. It is seen by many as a distillation of the spirit of Prince Igor, with its bardic minstrelsy and depictions of the wide-open skies of the Russian Steppe, displaying exceptional melodic charm (often with an appealing Oriental tang, reflecting his family pedigree) and sensuous, poetic beauty. The concerto for Harp and Orchestra is typical of Glière’s mature style, popular for its immediacy and lyrical beauty. Whilst almost Mozartian in its form and flow, it includes plentiful displays of eastern colour, sometimes dreamy, at other times brooding or carefree and cheerful. Mozart’s sparkling symphony represents the high point in his early symphonic writing, retaining a youthful vigor and grace and with a wonderfully transparent texture, full of light-hearted charm and elegance.
Artists: Kirill Karabits, Emmanuel Ceysson
Works and composers:
- Mozart – Symphony No.29
- Glière – Harp Concerto
- Borodin – Symphony No.2
Symphonic Space
4th November 2023 – BOOK NOW
Galactic classics at their best. Join the BSO for an evening featuring some of the best space soundtracks ever written for the big screen, from the innocent charm of John Williams’ E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to the dark terror of Jerry Goldsmith’s Alien… and everything in between.
Artists: Pete Harrison (conductor)
Works and composers:
- J Williams, Lost in Space
- Horner, Apollo 13
- J Williams, E.T. Adventures on Earth
- Goldsmith, Alien
- J Williams, Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Goldsmith, Star Trek: Nemesis
- Rabin, Armageddon
- Philips, Battlestar Galactica
- Horner, Avatar
- Zimmer, Interstellar
Magic Mahler
7th December 2023 – BOOK NOW
A new symphonic universe was born in Mahler’s First Symphony, one in which life and music remained virtually inseparable. Few composers have succeeded in evoking so poetically the romantic magic of nature’s awakening, its birdsong, hunting horns and distant fanfares. This sound world invariably reflected his personal conflict, religious and philosophical outlook, and the current state of his psyche. The robust score bursts with the boldness and fire of youth and flirts cheekily with traditional ideas of good taste. His final symphonic work, the Double Concerto knits together Brahms’ approach to chamber music with the scale of his symphonic scores. It calls for deep lyricism and virtuosic technique from its soloists to create the illusion of a single instrument. Its rich harmonies and soaring melodies exude a warm, autumnal glow.
Artists: Kerem Hasan, Alina Ibragimova, Jesper Svedberg
Works and composers:
- Brahms – Double Concerto for Violin and Cello
- Mahler – Symphony No.1 ‘Titan’
Last Night of the Christmas Proms
21st December 2023 – BOOK NOW
The ultimate musical Christmas cracker, our ever-popular festive concert of hits is back with an overflowing bundle of musical treats including Jingle Bells, Winter Wonderland and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, all wrapped up with a sprinkling of magic and sparkle. You just can’t beat a bit of Cliff Richard, Bing Crosby or Slade!
With plenty of opportunities to join in with the fun and frolics, this concert will once again have you raising the roof and dancing in the aisles.
Artists: Tom Fetherstonhaugh (conductor)
Works and composers:
- Anderson, Sleigh Ride
- Marks, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
- Trad. arr. Goodwin, The 12 Days of Christmas
- Marks, Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- Berlin, White Christmas
- Slade, Merry Christmas Everybody
- Wood, Oh I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
My Country
25th January 2024 – BOOK NOW
Má Vlast is considered a paragon of Czech nationalism – celebrating its culture and history, the countryside, and its people. Though usually performed as independent pieces, only as a six-work cycle is Smetana’s grand conception fully realised. Vyšehrad depicts a high castle overlooking Prague, the famous Vltava traces the journey of Czechia’s longest river from source to sea passing festivities along the way, whilst Šárka tells a bloody tale of revenge and slaughter. From the meadows and woods of Bohemia is a colourful landscape painting that illustrates the beauties of Bohemia; the poetry of its woods and its fruitful fields. Tábor and Blaník both celebrate a past, glorious era; Tábor is the capital of the Hussite empire in the early 1400s and Blaník is the mountain where legend said that the great army of St. Wenceslas slept, ready to wake during time of need.
Artists: Jac van Steen
Works and composers:
- Smetana – Ma Vlast (complete)
London Town
22nd February 2024 – BOOK NOW
Vaughan Williams’ Second Symphony has been described as the musical equivalent of Monet’s paintings of the sun rising over a foggy Thames. Actual London sounds fleetingly emerge from an exquisitely woven musical tapestry – the chimes of Big Ben, the cry of a lavender-seller. Central to the symphony’s success is the wonderful limpid scoring, which Vaughan Williams felt in later life that he had never bettered. All of Brahms’ four instrumental concertos were milestones in his compositional development. The Second Piano Concerto was written shortly after the Second Symphony and is itself symphonic in scale and form, comprising four movements. It makes great demands on the performer’s technique, with its wide octave spans and quickly alternating rapid scale and chordal passages.
Artists: Karl-Heinz Steffens, Boris Giltburg
Works and composers:
- Brahms – Piano Concerto No.2
- Vaughan Williams – A London Symphony (Symphony No.2)
Counterpoint Counterparts
14th March 2024 – BOOK NOW
In just four years Mozart wrote sixteen glorious piano concertos. No.23 (K.488) was an immediate success, remaining popular probably as much for its wistfulness as for melodies verging on the sublime. It does not open with fanfare – rather it begins with a gentle melody, setting the stage for a unique blend of moods from quiet serenity to flashes of aural radiance. The spirited finale perhaps reminds us that this was the product of one of the most exhilarating periods in his tragically brief life. In his Fifth Symphony, Bruckner built on the Austro-German symphonic tradition of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, taking it to a monumental scale infused with rich, progressive harmonies and a stunning mastery of counterpoint, containing his most complex and innovative musical thoughts, set out like a huge mathematical puzzle.
Artists: Kirill Karabits, Awadagin Pratt
Works and composers:
- Mozart – Piano Concerto No.23
- Bruckner – Symphony No.5
Classic FM Hall of Fame
18th April 2024 – BOOK NOW
Enjoy an evening featuring five of the greatest works in classical music!
Rossini’s evocative overture with its flowing melodies and infectious momentum, is instantly recognisable while Grieg’s Piano Concerto is loved for its lyrical and melodic tunes, drawn from Norwegian folk music. Witness the fire, passion and revenge in a doomed Spanish love story in the orchestral suite from Bizet’s Carmen and bathe in the silvery light of Debussy’s ode to the moon. Finally, Gershwin’s vivid musical postcard portrays the impressions of Parisian life – the American tourist brought to life in a bluesy trumpet solo, rollicking syncopated rhythms, and sweeping, romantic melodies.
Artists: Tom Fetherstonhaugh (conductor), Eric Lu (piano)
Works and composers:
- Rossini, The Thieving Magpie Overture
- Grieg, Piano Concerto
- Bizet, Carmen Suite
- Debussy, Claire de Lune
- Gershwin, An American in Paris
Multibuy Discounts for the BSO Season:
– Book any 5+ concerts and get 10% off
– Book any 3-4 concerts and get 5% off