Beauty and wit from the 18th and 20th centuries | Finchley Symphony Orchestra

The overture to Mozart’s comic opera ‘Cosi fan tutte’ is a sparkling introduction to our concert conducted by Christopher Stark. Written just a few years later while Haydn was in England the ‘London’ Symphony is the culmination of his lifelong development of the form and brims with his usual charm and wit.

Madeleine Pickering joins us to play Samuel Barber’s beautiful but fearsomely difficult Violin Concerto. Madeleine has performed across the UK. At the Royal Academy she won all the major prizes for violin and viola and she is completing her studies under Michael Foyle at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Köln where she has won the concerto competition.

Malcolm Arnold’s music is better known than his name. He wrote many film scores including for Bridge on the River Kwai and the original St Trinians series. Like Haydn his music is tuneful and often witty as in this Serenade for Small Orchestra.