Cheltenham Town Hall

Mendelssohn - Hebrides Overture 10'
Dvorak  - Silent Woods 7’
Smetana - Vltava from Ma Vlast 12’
Ethyl Smyth - The Wreckers 8’
Sibelius  - 2nd Symphony 45’

Kenneth Woods - conductor
Joely Koos - cello
Zeb Soanes - presenter

ESO's 2026-27 residencey season opens with a vibrant evening of evocative works celebrating humanity’s deep spiritual connection to the natural world. Portraits of composers and creators, friends and family, alongside landscapes, mindscapes and seascapes of nature, featuring Sibelius’s hugely popular 2nd symphony and presented by Classic FM’s Zeb Soanes.

ESO Insight Series
ESO has introduced the new ESO Insight Series. These relaxed, engaging pre‑performance conversations offer a closer look at the stories, ideas, and creative voices behind each programme. Led by the musicians and composers who shape their performances, the Insight Series invites you to arrive a little earlier at 6.30pm, settle in, and enjoy a more connected start to your evening with the ESO. Free to ticket holders and no booking required.

Season ticket details

5% off per ticket when booking 2 concerts
10% off per ticket when booking 3 concerts
15% off per ticket when booking 4 concerts

J S Bach - Mass in B Minor

Orchestra - Musical and Amicable Society 
Conductor - David Crown
Soloists - Hannah Davey (soprano)
                    Rebecca Afonwy-Jones (mezzo-soprano)
                    Sebastian Hill (tenor)
                    Felix Kemp (baritone)

Glinka - Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla 7'
Rachmaninov - Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini 26'
Shostakovich - Symphony No. 5 52’

Kenneth Woods - conductor
Ryan Wang - piano

Glinka’s fiery and virtuosic Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla sets the stage for an evening that sees the ESO traversing two monumental Russian works of the 1930s. Rachmaninov crowned his unique cycle of works for piano and orchestra with his 1934 Rhapsody, a work with the kind of abundance of melodic riches and virtuosic thrills in which Rachmaninov remains without peer.

Composed only three years later, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony emerged from the darkest days of Stalinist repression and is, in the view of many music lovers worldwide, the definitive symphony of the 20th Century.

Canadian pianist Ryan Wang was the BBC Young Musician winner in 2024 and the youngest performer ever to feature in Classic FM’s ‘30 under 30’ list in 2023.

ESO has introduced the new ESO Insight Series. These relaxed, engaging pre‑performance conversations offer a closer look at the stories, ideas, and creative voices behind each programme. Led by the musicians and composers who shape their performances, the Insight Series invites you to arrive a little earlier, at 6.30pm, settle in, and enjoy a more connected start to your evening with the ESO. Free to ticket holders and no need to book.

Berlioz - Beatrice et Benedict Overture
Elgar - Cello Concerto
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 5
Soloist - Kirsten Jenson
Conductor - Tom Gauterin

Elgar - In The South 21’
Korngold - Violin Concerto 24’
Tchaikovsky - 4th Symphony 42’
Jac van Steen - conductor
Zoe Beyers - violin

Tchaikovsky’s most uplifting and exuberant symphony, the Fourth, emerged following a period of profound personal crisis. As a declaration of new-found confidence, hope and optimism, it is almost without equal in the symphonic world.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold had spent many of his prime years as a film composer and his sumptuous Violin Concerto is a work that overflows with a decade of melodic riches Korngold had been waiting to share with the world whilst in exile. 

Elgar, much like his hero Brahms, approached writing a first symphony with a mix of trepidation and anxiety. His first sustained attempt to compose one in 1903 produced no symphony, but instead Elgar’s greatest tone poem, In the South.
ESO has introduced the new ESO Insight Series. These relaxed, engaging pre‑performance conversations offer a closer look at the stories, ideas, and creative voices behind each programme. Led by the musicians and composers who shape our performances, the Insight Series invites you to arrive a little earlier at 2pm, settle in, and enjoy a more connected start to your evening with the ESO. Free to ticket holders and no need to book

Vaughan Williams - Toward the Unknown Region
Beethoven - Symphony no. 9

Soloists: Claire Wild; Olivia Ray; Robyn Lyn Evans; Aidan Smith
Gloucester Choral Society
Conductor -  David Curtis

Humperdink - Hansel and Gretel Prelude 8'
Richard Strauss - Horn Concerto so 1 15'
Bruckner - Symphony no 4 65'

Kenneth Woods - conductor
Soloist Ben Goldscheider
Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony has long been an audience favourite, with its pitch perfect balance of long melodies and orchestral drama more than meriting its nickname “The Romantic.” Throughout the Fourth, it is that most evocative and romantic of instruments, the horn, which serves as protagonist and narrator, and so it is with the other two works on the programme.

ESO have introduced the new ESO Insight Series. These relaxed, engaging pre‑performance conversations offer a closer look at the stories, ideas, and creative voices behind each programme. Led by the musicians and composers who shape our performances, the Insight Series invites you to arrive a little earlier as 6.30, settle in, and enjoy a more connected start to your evening with the ESO. Free to ticket holders and no need to boom

A Night at the Movies: Hollywood Classics (to include Rhapsody in Blue) - further details TBC.
Conductor - Tom Gauterin