CLASSICAL: Music at Ripon festival

To mark its 20th anniversary, the multi-media Ripon International Festival spreads its celebrations throughout September, taking seventeen events throughout the region, opening with a concert from the Orchestra of Opera North in Harrogate's Royal Hall.
CHAMBER-SIZED: Royal Northern Sinfonia will be at Ripon FestivalCHAMBER-SIZED: Royal Northern Sinfonia will be at Ripon Festival
CHAMBER-SIZED: Royal Northern Sinfonia will be at Ripon Festival

As a virtuoso showcase, the festival’s Artistic Director, Janusz Piotrowicz, has chosen an all-Russian programme with Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy Overture, Romeo and Juliet, creating the high voltage content that continues with the Polovtsian Dances from Borodin’s opera, Prince Igor, and the searing intensity of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony (September 2).

From high emotion, Piotrowicz moves to three masterpieces of the Baroque era, with the Third and Fourth of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and his Second Orchestral Suite in the ideal surroundings of Ripon Cathedral. Conducting the chamber-sized Royal Northern Sinfonia, the evening closes with Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony performed as originally conceived (September 22). Turn the clock back even further and the outstanding period instruments of Fantasticus Baroque mark the 250th anniversary of the death of Telemann with an evening containing his ‘Paris’ Quartets (September 14), while Sean Shibe includes Scottish Lute Music and Bach’s Fourth Lute Suite (September 12). Other highlights include Mary Reid’s harp recital and the Brighouse & Rastrick Band in ‘classical’ mood.

For full details and to book tickets visit www.riponinternationalfestival.com or phone 01765 605508.