Violin and director Zoë Beyers

Delius On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring

Delius A Song Before Sunrise

Caroline Shaw and the swallow

Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending

Beethoven Symphony No. 6 Pastoral

Saturday 17 February 2024 7.30pm

The King's School, Macclesfield

Tickets: £27.00 | Under 30s £17 | Full Time Students and Under 18s Free

Many composers have turned to nature for inspiration and this programme reflects some of the finest examples. Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending needs no introduction, even though it has been dislodged from first to second place in the Classic FM Hall of Fame 2023. The titles given by Beethoven to the movements of the Pastoral Symphony (e.g. 'Awakening of cheerful feelings on arriving in the country') might suggest programmatic music but, as one expects with Beethoven, he was less interested in delightful pictures than the emotions they elicit. Two miniature tone poems by Delius reveal his impressionistic skills, whilst and the swallow by the contemporary American composer, Caroline Shaw, is a simple but touching arrangement of her choral setting of Psalm 84.

Zoë Beyers directs the NCO for the first time and is the soloist in The Lark Ascending. In 2020 she was appointed leader of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and appears regularly as guest leader with many other orchestras including the Hallé, RLPO, BBC Symphony, CBSO, Philharmonia and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Tickets: https://www.ncorch.co.uk