Marios Papadopoulos

Mendelssohn Scottish Symphony
2024-11-29 19:30 - 21:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Mendelssohn Hebrides Overture, Op. 26 * Side-by-Side
Mendelssohn Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 25
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56, ‘Scottish’
Nuron Mukumi piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey conductor*
Wandering the streets of Edinburgh and rambling the hillsides of the Hebrides in 1829, Mendelssohn was overcome. Nothing, apparently, had prepared him for the impact of the dramatic Caledonian coastline and imposing capital. Mendelssohn’s splendid symphonic souvenir of Scotland moves from dark standing stones to Scottish folk tunes across forty minutes of free-flowing, rugged musical brilliance. Marios Papadopoulos conducts it here after the sea-spray of the composer’s Hebrides Overture and the passionate G minor Piano Concerto under the agile fingers of Nuron Mukumi, alumnus of the Oxford Piano Festival.

Mendelssohn Piano Trio
2024-11-23 19:30 - 21:30 (Europe/London) | Holywell Music Room, Holywell St., Oxford, OX1 3SB, United Kingdom
Bach Prelude from Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006 (arr. Mendelssohn)
Bach Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 (arr. Mendelssohn)
Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49
Soloists of the Oxford Philharmonic
Marios Papadopoulos piano
It was Felix Mendelssohn who brought Bach back into currency in nineteenth-century Germany. In addition to reviving countless works by his Leipzig forebear, Mendelssohn made his own arrangements, including his expanding of the poised calligraphy of Bach’s Partitas for solo violin. This performance of two of Mendelssohn’s most effective transcriptions is capped by the composer’s own Piano Trio No. 1, a joyous conversation for violin, cello and piano in which the thunderously dramatic alternates with the gently elegiac.

Bach Mass in B Minor
2024-11-21 19:00 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Bach Mass in B minor, BWV 232
Madison Nonoa soprano
Anna Devin soprano
Kathryn Rudge mezzo-soprano
James Gilchrist tenor
James Platt bass
Oxford Philharmonic Choir
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Marios Papadopoulos assembles a team of front-rank soloists and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir at the Sheldonian Theatre for a performance of Bach’s monumental Mass in B minor. In the late 1740s, Bach returned to two movements of the Latin Mass written a decade and a half earlier, expanding them into what many consider his towering achievement. The B minor Mass would prove the culmination of the composer’s work in sacred music, establishing new ways of organising sounds, words, harmonies and keys while creating the most epic of journeys in faith and music.

The Firebird
2024-10-31 19:30 - 22:00 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Saint-Saëns Danse Macabre, Op. 40
Shor Violin and Viola Concerto
Mussorgsky Night on Bald Mountain (arr. Rimsky-Korsakov)
Stravinsky The Firebird Suite (1919)
Marc Bouchkov violin
David Aaron Carpenter viola
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Music would never be the same after Igor Stravinsky unleashed The Firebird in 1910 – a ballet score that would herald the pictorial powers with which the composer would shock and enchant generations of theatregoers. Stravinsky found the perfect subject matter in the collision of the evil magician Kaschchei with the just and irrepressible Firebird. The suite of music from the ballet ends in an infernal dance ripe for Stravinsky’s own brand of violent syncopation. Marios Papadopoulos conducts it here, alongside wickedly entertaining music from Saint-Saëns, and an atmospheric mountain climb from Mussorgsky. The concert is complete with the virtuosic and lyrical concerto for violin and viola by Alexey Shor, our Composer-in-Residence, highlighting the instruments’ poetic qualities while seamlessly blending their technical brilliance and emotional depth.

Tchaikovsky Five
2024-10-17 19:30 - 21:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Glinka Overture Ruslan and Ludmilla* Side-by-Side
Alessandro MacKinnon-Botti Voice-Leading** world premiere
Walton Viola Concerto in A minor
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
Alessandro MacKinnon-Botti beatboxer
Isobel Neary-Adams viola
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey conductor*
John Traill conductor **
Emerging talent from the University of Oxford is to the fore in this concert showcasing the winner of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra’s Senior Concerto Competition and the world premiere of a piece presented in our 2024 Composers’ Workshop. Alessandro MacKinnon-Botti is both composer and soloist in his Voice-Leading for beatboxer and orchestra, while Isobel Neary-Adams plays Walton’s dark, excitable, lyrical and quick-witted viola concerto. Having opened with Glinka’s sprightly Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture, joined by a cohort of Side-by-Side alumni, the concert concludes with Tchaikovsky’s symphonic expression of hope in the face of adversity, his luminous Symphony No. 5 Supported by the University of Oxford in celebration of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra’s Silver Jubilee.

Piano Masterclass | Oxford Piano Festival 2024
2024-08-03 14:30 - 17:50, 2024-07-29 09:30 - 12:50 (Europe/London) | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, Oxford, United Kingdom
The remarkably talented participants of the Oxford Piano Festival receive masterclasses from some of the world’s leading authorities on piano. The repertoire list for the masterclasses will be available to view from 20 July 2024 on the Oxford Piano Festival website.

Víkingur Ólafsson and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra
2024-08-01 19:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54
Schumann Symphony No. 2 in C major, Op. 61
Vikingur Ólafsson piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
In a standout highlight of this year’s Festival, the beloved Icelandic pianist and born communicator Víkingur Ólafsson joins Marios Papadopoulos and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra for the piano concerto by Robert Schumann – a supple and musical love letter to his pianist wife, Clara. After Schumann’s concerto comes the composer’s most uplifting symphony – the defiant, joyous and spirited Symphony No. 2 that shares its key, its power and its rigour with the ‘Great’ symphony by Schubert that helped inspire it.

Directing from the Keyboard Masterclass | Oxford Piano Festival 2024
2024-07-30 14:30 - 17:50 (Europe/London) | Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, Oxford, United Kingdom

Mischa Maisky
2024-06-27 19:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Henry Le Feber Robertson Oublié* world premiere
Dvořák Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104
Dvořák Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, ‘From the New World’
Mischa Maisky cello
Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey conductor*
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
When Dvořák first heard America’s spirituals and plantation songs, he wrote that they would form ‘the future music of this country’. Rather sooner, the spirit of those melodies made their way into Dvořák’s most popular work. In his ‘New World’ symphony, the composer wove the songs of native America into music of intense warmth, drama and spontaneity. Nature shines through this most gregarious music, but so does the sense of sadness and longing that also colours the composer’s wistful Cello Concerto – another moving product of the Czech composer’s years spent expatriated across the Atlantic. Musical icon Mischa Maisky joins Marios Papadopoulos and the orchestra for this concert of heartfelt letters from America. The second premiere selected from last year’s composers’ workshop opens the concert.

Sir Stephen Hough
2024-06-20 19:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Brahms Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30
Sir Stephen Hough piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
One of the great pianists of our time brings us one of the great piano concertos of all time. Sir Stephen Hough, whose recording of the Rachmaninov concerto was a Sunday Times Record of the Year, joins Marios Papadopoulos to take on the Everest of the piano literature – the Russian composer’s ardent and immense Piano Concerto No. 3. Before it, a work both menacing and mellifluent, the exquisite picture of radiant beauty and dark foreboding that is Brahms’s Symphony No. 3. It will give the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra plenty of opportunity to display both its outstanding soloists and its warm, embracing sound.

Beethoven Five
2024-05-30 19:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Farrenc Overture No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 24* Side-by-Side
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
Javier Perianes piano
Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey conductor*
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Beethoven had a transformative effect on both the symphony and the piano concerto, expanding the expressive range and physical dimensions of both. Few works demonstrate that better than the composer’s pivotal Piano Concerto No. 3 – in which the composer brings new drama and tension to the form – and the symphony with the most famous opening gambit in history. Beethoven’s Fifth is both a defiantly optimistic symphony and a manifesto for a new form of musical design that couldn’t help but influence future generations, not least the equally headstrong Louise Farrenc, whose music opens this concert. Javier Perianes joins Marios Papadopoulos and the Orchestra for some of the most striking orchestral works of the 19th century.
Young Artists’ Platform
Pre-concert recital 18:30

Anne-Sophie Mutter
2024-05-26 19:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Violin Concerto to be announced
Wagner Prelude & Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
Strauss Don Juan, Op. 20
Anne-Sophie Mutter violin
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Legendary violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter makes a welcome return to Oxford in what promises to be a phenomenal performance. Passion sings its way through the second half of the concert: ecstasy courses through Strauss’s depiction of the hedonist Don Juan, while love flows through the climactic tension of the most arresting orchestral music from Wagner’s opera on infatuation and transcendence, Tristan und Isolde.

James Ehnes plays Schumann
2024-04-20 19:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Weber Overture to Oberon, J. 306
Schumann Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 129
Schumann Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 97, ‘Rhenish’
James Ehnes violin
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Robert Schumann’s forceful imagination, his inquisitive mind, his passion for literature and his music of rare poetry exerted an influence on European creativity for decades. This concert culminates in one of the most propulsive symphonies ever written: Schumann’s captivating orchestral portrait of the deep and majestic River Rhine, complete with its splendid procession in salute to Cologne Cathedral. Before it, James Ehnes plays the composer’s Violin Concerto – a piece thought lost until it was discovered, with help from a séance, in the 1930s. In its intricate writing, Schumann’s work has been compared to the plotting characters in a play – precisely what Weber sought to achieve in the overture to his enchanting opera Oberon.

Mozart Requiem
2024-04-11 19:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat major, K. 482
Mozart Requiem in D minor, K. 626
Alexandra Lowe soprano
Rebecca Leggett mezzo-soprano
Thomas Elwin tenor
James Atkinson baritone
Schola Cantorum
Marios Papadopoulos piano/conductor
In contrast to Fauré’s Requiem heard just two weeks earlier at the Sheldonian Theatre, Mozart’s brims with music of the utmost imposition. In truth, there’s no need for contextual intrigue to heighten the drama and poignancy of Mozart’s Requiem, because the composer delivered both and more in his music in a piece that moves from the dark clouds of fate to the piercing light of optimism. After one of the composer’s most sophisticated piano concertos, Marios Papadopoulos conducts the Requiem here with the Schola Cantorum of Oxford and a first-class team of vocal soloists.
Young Artists’ Platform
Pre-concert recital 18:30

Sibelius Violin Concerto
2024-02-29 19:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Rossini Overture to The Barber of Seville* Side-by-Side
Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
Haydn Symphony No. 104 in D major, Hob. I:104, ‘London’
Anna-Liisa Bezrodny violin
Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey conductor*
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Marios Papadopoulos conducts our remarkable Associate Concertmaster Finnish-Estonian violinist Anna-Liisa Bezrodny in music close to her heart – the violin concerto by the composer who defined Finland in sound, Jean Sibelius. The concerto Sibelius wrote as a surrogate for the virtuoso violin career he could never have is a work of inspiring focus and fortitude, the virtuosity of which is never just for show. In this concert it is joined by the overture to Rossini’s enduringly popular comic opera, and Haydn’s best-known symphony.

InClassica International Music Festival: Grand Finale
2024-02-15 20:00 (Asia/Dubai) | Dubai Opera, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Blvd, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Rossini Overture to William Tell
Alexey Shor Violin Concerto No. 4 in B minor
Dvořák Symhpony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, ‘From the New World’
Stella Chen violin
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
The 2024 InClassica International Music, organised by SAMIT Event Group, comes to a thundering close on Thursday 15th February, with a Grand Finale featuring the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and their Founder and Music Director, Marios Papadopoulos (UK), alongside US violinist Stella Chen, the recipient of the 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant, 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award and Robert Levin Award, top prize winner of the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition, youngest ever prize winner of the Menuhin Competition and Winner of the 2019 Queen Elisabeth Competition. Presenting a packed programme of seminal favourites, the ensemble will open with the famous rousing Overture from Gioachino Rossini’s 1829 opera William Tell, before Chen joins them for a performance of Composer-in-Residence Alexey Shor’s Violin Concerto No. 4 in B minor, a work in three movements exhibiting all the hallmarks of Shor’s characteristic lyrical and tonal approach to contemporary music. Finally, the evening, and InClassica 2024 itself, shall conclude with the resounding notes of Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, ‘From the New World’, one of the most beloved and popular symphonies of all time. Composed while Dvořák was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America, the work shows strong influences from traditional Native American and African-American spiritual songs, and was immediately an instant success upon its premiere at Carnegie Hall in 1893, before going on to delight concert-goers all around the world for more than 130 years.

Martha Argerich
2024-01-11 19:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Programme to be announced
Martha Argerich piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Following sensational concerts in Oxford and Germany last season, Martha Argerich returns to perform with the Oxford Philharmonic with concerts in both Oxford and London. The performances promise to dazzle with the sheer brilliance of this astonishing pianist and celebrate her wonderful relationship with the Orchestra.

Janine Jansen
2023-12-15 19:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Marcello Palazzo Trails* world premiere
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
Schubert Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944, ‘The Great’
Janine Jansen violin
Marcello Palazzo conductor*
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
From its monolithic opening theme kick-starting a cycle of inexorable momentum like a giant pendulum, to the breathless dash of its finale, Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 of 1828 offers one of the most riveting journeys of any symphonic work. Along the way he appears to push at the boundaries of his age with grinding harmonies, protruding limbs and unstoppable waltz-like rhythms. No wonder it attracted the title ‘Great’. Marios Papadopoulos conducts Schubert’s final symphony here having been joined by a true violin great, Janine Jansen, for the radiant song that is Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. The concert opens with a world premiere of a work selected from last year’s composers’ workshop, conducted by the composer himself.

Beethoven Pastoral
2023-12-04 19:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Mendelssohn The Hebrides Overture, Op. 26, ‘Fingal’s Cave’
Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending
Wagner Forest Murmurs from Siegfried, WWV 86C
Beethoven Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, ‘Pastoral’
Leia Zhu violin
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Be transported from the urbane perfection of the Sheldonian Theatre into the mysteries of the forest, the wilds of the hills and valleys and the tempests of the open seas. Marios Papadopoulos conducts a concert filled with music inspired by nature, from Mendelssohn’s dizzying orchestral boat trip on heaving Scottish seas to the calm idylls of Wagner’s murmuring forest and the ‘silver chain of sound’ of Vaughan Williams’s soaring lark. The concert culminates in Beethoven’s symphonic visit to the Austrian countryside – in his own words, a ‘ramble for a while through bushes, woods, under trees, through grass, and around rocks,’ that includes storms, partying, feasting and dancing.
Panel Discussion, 18:30
Chaired by Cameron Hepburn, Professor of Environmental Economics at the University of Oxford. Leading climate experts and musicians come together to discuss the inspiring effect of the natural world in music.
Free admission.

Rachmaninov Two
2023-11-23 19:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Tchaikovsky Polonaise and Waltz from Eugene Onegin, Op. 24* Side-by-Side
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27
Lise de la Salle piano
Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey conductor*
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
There’s a reason Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is the most popular work of its kind ever written. From lonely chords, this iconic score hurtles towards a thundering climax via a succession of irresistible melodies – athletic one moment and heart-rending the next. Six years later, the composer freed himself from political turmoil with a stretch in Dresden that would become one of the most productive of his career. The standout result was a symphony powered by melody that encompasses infernal whirlwinds, passionate declarations of love and heartfelt reflections of peace. French pianist Lise de la Salle joins us for this feast of peak Rachmaninov, opening with livewire dances from his great forbear Tchaikovsky.
Young Artists’ Platform
Pre-concert recital 18:30
Supported by The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust

Tchaikovsky Piano Trio
2023-11-18 19:30 (Europe/London) | Holywell Music Room, Holywell St., Oxford, OX1 3SB, United Kingdom
Beethoven Piano Trio in G major, Op. 1 No. 2
Tchaikovsky Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50
Members of the Oxford Philharmonic
Marios Papadopoulos piano
Tchaikovsky once dismissed the combination of piano, violin and cello as unworkable. But when his friend and mentor Nikolai Rubinstein died, Tchaikovsky changed tack dramatically. In Rubinstein’s memory, a piano trio of extraordinary potency and profundity emerged deep from within Tchaikovsky’s soul. The resulting work is symphonic in scale and theatrical in drama, combining heroism and euphoria with the deepest human pain and pathos. Marios Papadopoulos joins members of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra to traverse the two colossal movements of Tchaikovsky’s chamber music masterpiece, after opening with the elegant piano trio from Beethoven’s very first opus.

Mozart Masterpieces
2023-10-12 19:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Mozart Overture to Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K. 384
Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216
Mozart Symphony No. 39 in E flat major, K. 543
Charlotte Scott violin
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Associate Concertmaster Charlotte Scott joins us for an evening of Mozart, this time the composer’s Violin Concerto No. 3 – a score characterised by grace and charm, until it tears into an Alsatian dance at the end. Before it we hear Mozart channelling the spirit of Turkey in one of his most characterful opera overtures, while afterward comes the Mozart symphony in which everything changed. The first of his final symphonic trilogy is a work from which the brooding opening spills music of the most infectious joy. Marios Papadopoulos and the Orchestra return to the Sheldonian Theatre for this celebration of the genius and joy of Mozart.

Evengy Kissin
2023-09-21 19:30 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Oxford Town Hall, St Aldate's, Oxford, OX1 1BX, United Kingdom
John Rutter Anniversary Greeting for the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30
Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47
Evgeny Kissin piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Under the greatest pressure, Shostakovich delivered his most supreme masterpiece. Condemned by the Soviet powers after his satirical opera Lady Macbeth, Shostakovich was ordered to write a symphony rejoicing in Stalin’s reign of terror. The result was a score poetic, sardonic and climactic that ends with a forced smile that proves the most shattering of climaxes. Before it, giant of the Russian piano school Evgeny Kissin joins Marios Papadopoulos for Rachmaninov’s dignified Piano Concerto No. 3, in which a lone virtuoso thunders against a surging orchestra in a heart-stopping narrative. John Rutter’s new work written for the Orchestra’s 25th birthday kicks off this titanic season opening at Oxford Town Hall.

Anna Fedorova and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra
2023-08-03 20:00 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16
Sibelius Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82
Anna Fedorova piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
For Sibelius, only nature could transcend the agony of life. The composer’s Symphony No. 5 is perhaps the supreme musical example of that concept – a work in which the composer imagines himself soaring above earthly concerns like the flock of swans he describes using the orchestra’s inspiring, ascendanttrumpets. The Nordic region’s most stirring symphony is heard here at the Sheldonian Theatre alongside its most famous Piano Concerto – Edvard Grieg’s Concerto in A minor. The composition is a reconciling of romantic sweep and passion with the clarity and fresh air of his Norwegian mountain aesthetic. Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova joins Marios Papadopoulos and the Orchestra for this concert of bold statements from the north.

Music from Amadeus
2023-07-23 19:30 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Salieri Sinfonia Veneziana
Mozart Concerto for Flute and Harp in C major, K. 299
Mozart Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183
Anthony Robb flute
Sally Pryce harp
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Miloš Forman’s 1984 movie Amadeus is a masterpiece from beginning to end, telling of the ambition, obsession and jealousy that nearly thwarted the career of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and of the sublime music that poured out of a genius whose foibles and vulgarity were all too human. Mozart’s volatile Symphony No. 25 pays homage to the ‘father of the symphony’ himself, Joseph Haydn, who is represented by his more doleful Symphony No. 44 in the Sheldonian Theatre, as well as his frolicking Cello Concerto No. 1 featuring soloist Oliver Simpson – winner of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2022 Oxfordshire Senior Concerto Competition.

Music from Amadeus
2023-07-22 19:30 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | St-Martin-in-the-Fields, London, Trafalgar Sq

Bruckner Seven
2023-06-29 19:30 - 21:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19
Bruckner Symphony No. 7 in E major, WAB 107
Paul Lewis piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
None of his works brought Anton Bruckner the joy and pride of his seventh symphony. This is the composer’s most delicately etched orchestral creation and his most instantly beautiful – a symphony that enshrines a heartfelt eulogy for Richard Wagner but thrusts with excitement and changeability too. For this culmination of our season at the Sheldonian Theatre, Marios Papadopoulos conducts Bruckner’s symphony here after Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 – actually the composer’s first full-length orchestral work, and an imposingly assertive one at that.

Enigma Variations
2023-06-03 19:30 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Morfydd Llwyn Owen Nocturne* Side-by-Side
Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
Elgar Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, ‘Enigma’
Alban Gerhardt cello
Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey conductor*
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
When Edward Elgar started to improvise a little tune at his piano one day, considering how a group of his closest friends might play that tune, he gave birth to one of the greatest masterpieces of English music. The ‘Enigma’ variations are uplifting and resigned, humorous and profound. Elgar’s dazzling, virtuosic orchestral showpiece comes after his acerbic, embittered and sorrowful Cello Concerto written in less happy times, and the rediscovered gem that is Morfydd Llwyn Owen’s sumptuous Nocturne.

Oxford Philharmonic at the Cadogan
2023-05-23 19:30 - 21:30 (Europe/London) | Cadogan Hall, London, United Kingdom
Mozart Ch’io mi scordi di te?, K. 505
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466
John Rutter Anniversary Greeting for the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra (world premiere)*
Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
Sophie Bevan Soprano
John Rutter conductor*
Marios Papadopoulos piano/conductor
The seventh is Beethoven’s most fascinating symphony – a work whose new vision of rhythm’s relationship with harmony produced the most physical, compelling music that had ever been created. Beethoven wasn’t just exploring new techniques, he was giving voice to a wave of joy that had swept into his life and filled him with determination and optimism. Before it, we hear Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20, which sees the composer begin his transformation of the piano concerto from entertaining diversion to engrossing narrative experience. Marios Papadopoulos is conductor and soloist for this visit to London’s Cadogan Hall.
