Explore our past concerts!
In our past concerts Odyssey Festival Orchestra has showcased our young and talented musicians and captivated audiences with our beautiful performances. On this page, you can discover our previous projects including the programmes and complete recordings of the concerts. Check out the videos below and relive the magic!
“A Hopeless Case”: The Misunderstood Genius of Modest Mussorgsky
Wednesday 22nd January 2025
Cadogan Hall, London, SW1X 9DQ
Mussorgsky (orch. Rimsky-Korsakov) - Night on a Bare Mountain
Mussorgsky (orch. Shostakovich) - Songs and Dances of Death
Mussorgsky (orch. Ravel) - Pictures at an Exhibition
Odyssey Festival Orchestra’s band of talented musicians, aged 18–30, continues to refresh the concert-going experience with a programme that explores the career of composer Modest Mussorgsky.
Mussorgsky was the tortured genius of 19th-century Russian music. A visionary and iconoclast, he was also a nervous outsider, awkward and misunderstood. Haunted by death, he died impoverished, aged only 42.
Using his own words and those of his Russian contemporaries, the programme will explore what made Mussorgsky so brilliantly original and why composers like Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich and Ravel felt drawn into re-arranging his compositions.
The concert features performances of three of his most famous works, conducted by Odyssey’s Artistic Director, Peter Ash.
An exploration of Mahler's Fifth Symphony
"No-one Understood Me"
17th September 2024, 7.30pm
Cadogan Hall, London, SW1X 9DQ
Mahler - Symphony No 5
Odyssey Festival Orchestra’s band of talented young musicians continues to refresh the concert-going experience with a programme that examines the influences behind Mahler’s epic Fifth Symphony which the composer claimed after its premiere that no-one had understood.
The first half of the concert will draw largely on the letters and reflections of his widow, Alma. It will examine some of the songs and experiences that inspired the Symphony. It will also explore how the Symphony began with Mahler’s burning sense of the immediacy of his own death and changed course when he fell in love with Alma Schindler. Many believe the Symphony’s tender Adagiettowas his musical love letter to her.
Alma will be narrated by one of Britain’s greatest stage actresses, Dame Janet Suzman.
The evening concludes with a complete performance of the Symphony, conducted by Odyssey’s Artistic Director, Peter Ash.
Lollipops and Blood
2nd May 2024, 7.30pm
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, SE1 8XX
Lollipops and Blood, An Evening with Sir Thomas Beecham
Mozart - Overture to Der Schauspieldirektor
Sibelius - Valse Triste
Handel - The gods go a-begging Suite arr. Beecham
Delius - La Calinda from Koanga
Smyth - Overture to The Boatswain's Mate
Saint-Saëns - Bacchanale from Samson and Delila
Strauss - Salome's Dance and Closing scene from Salome
Sir Thomas Beecham (1879–1961), 2nd Bt by Bernard Munns, photo credit: Wadham College, University of Oxford, CC BY-NC-ND
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Every Tree Speaks to Me!
11th January 2024, 7.30pm
Cadogan Hall, London, SW1X 9DQ
Every Tree Speaks to Me! How the Natural World influenced composers
Beethoven - Symphony No 6
Wagner - Forest Murmurs from Siegfried Act 2
Janáček - Suite from The Cunning Little Vixen
Astonish Me!
20th September 2023, 7.30pm
Cadogan Hall, London, SW1X 9DQ
An exploration of repertoire inspired by two dancers, Vaslav Nijinsky and Leonid Massine, and commissioned by the great impresario Diaghilev and his Ballet Russes.
Weber (orch Berlioz 1841) (1911) Invitation to the Dance
Stravinsky Suite from Petrushka (1911)
Ravel Daphnis and Chloe, Suite No 2 (1909)
Respighi Suite from La Boutique Fantasque
Stravinsky Pulcinella (excerpts) (1920)
De Falla Three Cornered Hat, Suite No 2 (1919)
Download the programme from this concert (with notes on the music)
The Joker
10th May 2023, 19:30
Cadogan Hall, London, SW1X 9DQ
Shostakovich:
Overture: The Nose Op. 15 (1928)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor Op. 35 (1933)
Orchestral Fragments from Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk Op. 29 (1934)
Suite from The Clear Stream Op. 39a (1935)
Symphony No. 5 Op. 47 (1937)
Download the programme from this concert (with notes on the music)
Download the programme from this concert (with notes on the music)
The Last Waltz
13 January 2023, 19:30
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, SE1 8XX
Sir David Suchet Narrator
Sebastian-Benedict Flore Piano
Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales and La Valse
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris
Legendary actor Sir David Suchet joins Odyssey Festival Orchestra to explore the clash of high art music and jazz in the 1920s, featuring four works by Ravel and Gershwin. The four orchestral works by Maurice Ravel and George Gershwin are framed by a narrative drawn from the writings of the two composers.
Prometheus - Romantic Superhero
15 September 2022, 19:30
Cadogan Hall, London, SW1X 9DQ
Dame Janet Suzman and Luke Wilson, narrator
Beethoven: Excepts from Prometheus and Symphony no. 3, 'Eroica'
Download the programme from this concert (with notes on the music)
