A concert of British classical and light music conducted by John Wilson with the Sinfonia of London and violinist Charlie Lovell-Jones.
John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London are playing at York Barbican on Sunday 12 July, with violinist Charlie Lovell-Jones joining them on stage. It's a concert of British classical and light music, and the programme is a broad one, moving from the pastoral to the punchy.
They'll open with the overture from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard, followed by Delius's The Walk to the Paradise Garden. From there it's into the more familiar territory of Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending, and Elgar's Chanson de Matin and Chanson de Nuit. The second half brings Walton's Spitfire Prelude and Fugue, and Eric Coates's Calling All Workers and Cinderella, alongside works by Richard Rodney Bennett. It's a wide sweep of English music, and the programme runs from the nostalgic to the modern.
Wilson is the one holding it all together, and he's got a reputation for this kind of thing. The Daily Telegraph has called him 'the most exciting conductor working in Britain today', and the Sinfonia of London is the orchestra he's leading through the set. The whole thing is built around a particular kind of British musical imagination — the pastoral, the witty, and the big, sweeping melodies that a lot of people recognise without necessarily knowing the names attached to them. The Daily Mail described the experience as 'fascinating, wonderful and truly captivating', and The Guardian noted how this kind of carefully put-together programme manages to bring in a wide audience.
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The concert starts at 16:00, with doors opening at 15:30, so it's an afternoon thing rather than an evening one. You'll find it at York Barbican on Paragon Street, and the programme runs from the light, theatrical start of Gilbert and Sullivan through to the more modern pieces by Richard Rodney Bennett.
