Concerts
2025/26 Season
Autumn Concert 2025
***Joint concert with The Bradstow Singers***
Our first concert of the season sees us team up with The Bradstow Singers and their conductor, Jacob Bride, who has a long-standing association with MMS. In the first half, MMS’ conductor, Ben Knowles, will conduct Mozart’s fabulous overture to The Marriage of Figaro. After this, soprano soloist Joanne Whalley will join us to sing a selection of opera arias, accompanied by The Bradstow Singers and MMS.
The second half will see Jacob Bride take over the baton, where he will conduct his Dickens Suite and a selection of Christmas carols with both the choir and orchestra.
Spring Concert 2026
For our Spring concert, we return to St. Matthew’s Community Centre where we’ll explore two of the “little” works of two great symphonists, both written in the 1810s: Schubert’s 6th Symphony (known as the “little” C major, in contrast to the “great” C major symphony of the 9th) and Beethoven’s 8th Symphony, somewhat smaller in scale to the 7th and 9th that came either side of it, and indeed perhaps closer to the 1st, 2nd and 4th symphonies in style. Beethoven fondly referred to it as "my little Symphony in F”.
Opening our concert, we have Faure’s beautiful Pavane, written in 1887, originally for piano but later orchestrated. Faure described the work as "elegant, assuredly, but not particularly important.” Modern audiences would disagree with this assessment as it is a perennial favourite of orchestras and audiences
Summer Concert 2026
We close our season with a programme of European locations, starting in Fingal's Cave, in Scotland, with Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture.
We then travel to Paris for Mozart's Symphony No. 31, his first to feature clarinets. The work was composed in 1778 during Mozart's unsuccessful job-hunting trip to Paris when he was 22 years old.
Finally, we return to England and to London, for Haydn's 104th and last symphony. It's actually the last of twelve London symphonies but, somewhat arbitrarily, is the only one given the title "London". This work is full of drama and excitement and is a perfect way to round off our 99th concert season.