On Thursday 23 November, relax and unwind at Exeter’s Great Hall with a concert of some of the most beautiful classical music ever written.

The concert will see Young Conductor in Association, Victor Aviat leading the Orchestra, in a sublime concert with music by Dvořák, Grieg and Beethoven, among others.

This concert will showcase the talent of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra musicians collectively and individually as it features solo performances from BSO musicians Anna Pyne, Eluned Pierce, Edward Kay, Kevin Banks, Tammy Thorn and Amyn Merchant.

To open the concert, the BSO will perform Morning from Grieg’s Peer Gynt, written in 1875, to accompany Henrik Ibsen’s play of the same name. Grieg later extracted eight movements from Peer Gynt to form two suites and these are most commonly performed today.

Morning alternates between the flute and oboe as it depicts the rising of the sun in Act 4, Scene 4 of Ibsen’s play, which finds Peer Gynt stranded in the Moroccan desert after his companions took his yacht and abandoned him there while he slept.

Dvořák’s Largo from Symphony No.9 was written in 1893, whilst he was working in America and it is arguably his most popular symphony. Dvořák’s Largo is both an emotional lament and an unforgettable tune. Largo is perhaps now best known for its appearance in the ‘Boy on the bike’ television advert for Hovis bread, directed by Ridley Scott.

Mascagni was 27 when Cavalleria Rusticana, his one act opera, won the Sonzogno Publisher Prize for best opera in 1890. Translated as ‘Rustic Chivalry’, Cavalleria Rusticana explores themes of love, jealousy and revenge.

This opera contains one of the most famous pieces of classical music – the Intermezzo. There are no words to accompany this part of the opera but instead it is a short piece of orchestral music used by the composer to denote the passage of time.

Mascagni’s Intermezzo is delicately sentimental with its heavenly hearts and the hint of church music in the orchestral weave and represents the moment of calm in an otherwise emotionally tumultuous opera.

Mendelssohn wrote the Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1842, 16 years after he wrote the Overture, for a production of the play.

The Nocturne was one of three purely instrumental movements featuring a solo horn doubled by bassoons. This piece was written to accompany the sleeping lovers between Acts 3 and 4 of Shakespeare’s play.

The third and most famous movement of Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque is Clair de Lune. Its title suggests a relationship to Paul Verlaine’s eponymous poem under the same name, meaning ‘moonlight’ in French, which describes a vision of long dead dancers in the moonlight.

The music transmits the otherworldly and impalpable qualities of the experience while maintaining clarity and definition. Clair de Lune was also made famous by its appearance in films such as Casino Royale (1967) and Ocean’s Eleven (2001).

Other works featured in this relaxing concert include Beethoven’s Shepherd’s Song from Symphony No.6, Gluck’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits, Handel’s Sarabande as well as four sublime adagios from concertos by Mozart and Albinoni.

The BSO will be at Exeter’s Great Hall on Thursday 23 November 2017 at 7.30pm

Ticket prices: £40 / £34 / £26 / £22 / £16 (concessions are available)

To book tickets: Please visit BSOlive.com, or visit or call the Exeter Northcott Theatre on 01392 726363

(image: Victor Aviat)

Philip R Buttall