Summer Concert 20 June 2027

The Music for the Royal Fireworks is a suite in D major for wind instruments composed in 1749 under contract of George II of Great Britain for the fireworks in London's Green Park on 27 April 1749. The music celebrates the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in 1748. The work was very popular when first performed and has continued to be performed around the world.

FALLA: Ritual Fire Dance

Ritual Fire Dance (Spanish: Danza ritual del fuego) is a movement of the ballet El amor brujo (The Bewitched Love), written by the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla in 1915. It was made popular by the composer's own piano arrangement. 

The work can be associated to Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Flight of the Bumblebee' due to its fast, repetitive trills and ornaments. The piece was also influenced by the traditional, religious ceremony of a fire dance, a dance which was used to worship the fire-god and in which people would often jump through, or leap around the fire.

TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No.1 soloist: Reuben Moisey

The Piano Concerto No. 1 in B♭ minor, Op. 23, was composed between November 1874 and February 1875. It was revised in 1879 and again in 1888. It was first performed on October 25, 1875, in Boston by Hans von Bülow after Tchaikovsky's desired pianist, Nikolai Rubinstein, criticised the piece. Rubinstein later withdrew his criticism and became a fervent champion of the work. It is one of the most popular of Tchaikovsky's compositions and among the best known of all piano concertos.

Our soloist: Reuben Moisey was the runner up in the WMSO Young Musician Concerto Competition 2025

POWELL: How to Train Your Dragon

How to train your dragon is a story about a timid Viking boy who discovers he has a natural talent for training and domesticating his biggest fear - fire-breathing dragons. The movie was a great success and the soundtrack by John Powell earned him his first Academy Award nomination.

STRAVINSKY: Firebird Suite (1919)

The Firebird is a ballet and orchestral concert work written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company. Based on the Russian fairy tales of the Firebird and the blessing and curse it possesses for its owner. It was first performed at the Opéra de Paris on 25 June 1910 and was an immediate success, catapulting Stravinsky to international fame.