University Symphony Orchestra

University Symphony Orchestra are playing at Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall on Saturday 28 November, as part of the York Concert 2026/27 season. Conductor John Stringer has put together a programme of four works from very different worlds, so it's a bit of a mixed bag rather than a single theme. It opens with Vítězslava Kaprálová's Suita rustica, which she wrote in 1937 after her Military Sinfonietta. She finished it in just nine days and drew on Stravinsky's Petrushka for it, though Universal Edition ended up deciding not to publish it.

Francis Poulenc's Piano Concerto comes next. He wrote it after a US tour in 1948, commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to help mend Paris-USA relations after the Second World War. The critic Claude Rostand later described Poulenc as "something of a monk and something of a rascal," which is a fair way to sum up the kind of composer he was. Then there's Benjamin Britten's symphonic suite from his opera Gloriana, which the Royal Opera House commissioned to mark Queen Elizabeth II's 1953 coronation.

The final piece is from a different world entirely: Jonny Greenwood's 2012 suite, which adapts his Oscar-winning score for the film There Will Be Blood. It's a long way from the coronation and the post-war years, and it's the most recent thing on the bill by a good margin.

It all starts at 7:00 PM at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall on the University of York campus, YO10 5DD. Tickets are between £5.00 and £16.00.