London Concertante: VIENNESE CHRISTMAS BY CANDLELIGHT

The UK based chamber orchestra, London Concertante, regularly perform up to and over one hundred concerts per year, making it the busiest ensemble of its kind in the country. Regularly selling out venues such as St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Southwark Cathedral, the ensemble performs in some of the most prestigious venues around Britain and abroad, with recent tours taking them to USA, Finland, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Spain and France. With their numerous recordings reaching great critical acclaim, the ensemble is continually regarded as one of the finest groups in Europe since their founding in 1991.

Tchaikovsky’s elegant Nutcracker Suite leads on from Brahms’ serious Hungarian Dance No.5, before Strauss II introduces us to the boundless exuberance of the Polish March in his Trisch-Trasch Polka. In the concert’s penultimate work Tchaikovsky transports the evening to the magical halls of snowy Tsarist Russia with a regal waltz from his ballet Sleeping Beauty. The evening reaches its climax with the famous Blue Danube Waltz, not only proving the crowning jewel of a fabulous night’s worth of music, but the coronation of Johann Strauss II as the master of the Viennese waltz.

If you don’t consider yourself ‘in the know’ about Mozart, Beethoven, or Bach, fear not, this is the orchestra for you. The London Concertante boasts an impressive audience record in which an impressive 50% of spectators are first time classical concert goers! The London Concertante has its audience laughing at jokes, gasping at virtuosity, moved by gorgeous string playing, and leaving with a smile on their faces.