Marios Papadopoulos

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.

Anne-Sophie Mutter
2024-05-26 19:30 | 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.

Beethoven Five
2024-05-30 19:30 | 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

Sir Stephen Hough
2024-06-20 19:30 | 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.

Mischa Maisky
2024-06-27 19:30 | 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.

Piano Masterclass | Oxford Piano Festival 2024
2024-07-29 09:30 - 12:50, 2024-08-03 14:30 - 17:50 | 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.

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

Víkingur Ólafsson and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra
2024-08-01 19:30 | 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.

Tchaikovsky Five
2024-10-17 19:30 - 21:30 | 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.

The Firebird
2024-10-31 19:30 - 22:00 | 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.

Bach Mass in B Minor
2024-11-21 19:00 - 21:00 | 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.

Mendelssohn Piano Trio
2024-11-23 19:30 - 21:30 | 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.

Mendelssohn Scottish Symphony
2024-11-29 19:30 - 21:30 | 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's Elijah
2024-12-01 18:00 - 21:00 | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Mendelssohn Elijah, Op. 70 (sung in English)

Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha soprano
Angharad Lyddon mezzo-soprano
Adam Gilbert tenor
Sir Bryn Terfel bass-baritone
Crouch End Festival Chorus
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Premiered in Birmingham, a German oratorio with a Christian soul composed by a practicing Lutheran from a famously Jewish family, Elijah is the consummate work of bridge-building, understanding and reconciliation. ‘I was able to sway at will the enormous mass of orchestra, choir and organ’ wrote Mendelssohn from the West Midlands back to Leipzig as he reported on preparations for the oratorio examining the Old Testament figure of Elijah, a ground-shaking and inspiring monument to the nobility of faith. Sir Bryn Terfel is Elijah in this performance at the Sheldonian Theatre uniting soloists, the Crouch End Festival Chorus and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra.

Happy Birthday Marios
2024-12-20 19:30 - 21:30 | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83*
Brahms Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
Marios Papadopoulos piano/conductor
Michael Papadopoulos conductor*
Music Director Marios Papadopoulos celebrates a landmark occasion as soloist in Brahms’s Piano Concerto in B flat major and conductor in the same composer’s Symphony No. 4. Brahms wrote the second of his concertos at the ripest moment of his productivity, apparently able to animate any possible musical idea and to blend beauty with ferocity and drama with intimacy. Rising star Michael Papadopoulos, makes his debut as conductor with the Oxford Philharmonic to provide an accompaniment of symphonic proportions to this, the grandest of piano concertos of the Romantic era. After the interval, Marios Papadopoulos steps on the podium to conduct Brahms’s Apollonian final symphony – a work conceived as a retreat from the world that reflects on the composer’s lifelong servitude and his luminous acceptance of the end of his creative and mortal lives.

Verdi Requiem
2025-01-25 19:00 | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Verdi Messa da Requiem
Lauren Fagan soprano
Maria Schellenberg mezzo-soprano
David Junghoon Kim tenor
Blaise Malaba bass
Crouch End Festival Chorus
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
There is no more dramatic setting of the Requiem Mass in the repertory than Giuseppe Verdi’s, written to commemorate friends but giving full voice to the composer’s theatrical instincts and vivid response to religious imagery and poetry. World-class soloists and the massed voices of the Crouch End Festival Chorus gather at the Sheldonian Theatre for this performance of Verdi’s soul-stirring work of awe and redemption, often referred to as ‘an opera in disguise’, with the full force of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and its Music Director, Marios Papadopoulos.

Martha Argerich
2025-02-23 19:30 - 21:30 | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Coleridge-Taylor Ballade in A minor, Op. 33* Side-by-Side
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
Martha Argerich piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey conductor*
The great Martha Argerich returns to the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra as a concerto soloist, in Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto, surrounded surrounded in this programme by orchestral music of brilliance and drama. Samuel ColeridgeTaylor’s Ballade promises a wild ride: its energy and urgency will make any audience sit up and listen. To close, Marios Papadopoulos conducts Tchaikovsky’s great symphonic tussle with fate. In his red-blooded Symphony No. 4, the composer who always wore his heart on his sleeve manages to mine the consolation of hope from the turmoil of tragedy and despair, creating a live music experience like no other.

Martha Argerich
2025-02-24 19:30 - 21:30 | Barbican, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom
Coleridge-Taylor Ballade in A minor, Op. 33
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
Martha Argerich piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
The great Martha Argerich returns to the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra as a concerto soloist, in Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto, surrounded surrounded in this programme by orchestral music of brilliance and drama. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade promises a wild ride: its energy and urgency will make any audience sit up and listen. To close, Marios Papadopoulos conducts Tchaikovsky’s great symphonic tussle with fate. In his red-blooded Symphony No. 4, the composer who always wore his heart on his sleeve manages to mine the consolation of hope from the turmoil of tragedy and despair, creating a live music experience like no other.

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
2025-03-13 19:30 - 21:30 | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Bach Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 5 in D major, Op. 107, ‘Reformation’
Anthony Robb flute
Antje Weithaas violin
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
After its pious opening, Mendelssohn’s ‘Reformation’ Symphony explodes into a declaration of faith and equality – an image of the Lutheran Reformation as one of fortitude, industry, democratisation and joy, all of which permeate the composer’s best-kept symphonic secret. Before the embracing energy of Mendelssohn’s symphony comes the composer’s supremely elegant Violin Concerto in the sensitive hands of Antje Weithaas and music by Mendelssohn’s beloved Bach: the standout Orchestral Suite No. 2, with its modish flute solos.

Dvořák Eight
2025-04-10 19:30 - 21:30 | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Humperdinck Prelude from Hansel and Gretel
Wieniawski Fantaisie brilliante, on themes from Gounod’s Faust, Op. 20
Waxman Carmen Fantasy
Dvořák Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88
Bomsori Kim violin
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Winner of the Concerto Prize at the 2024 BBC Music Magazine Awards, Bomsori Kim brings her virtuosic storytelling to two spellbinding violin works distilled from great operas: Waxman’s famous Carmen Fantasy and Wieniawski’s wickedly entertaining fantasy on themes from Gounod’s Faust. Complementing these performances, Marios Papadopoulos conducts Humperdinck’s glowing prelude to Hänsel and Gretel and Dvořák’s thrilling Symphony No. 8, a supreme marriage of immediacy and architectural brilliance.

Mahler One
2025-05-10 19:00 - 21:30 | Oxford Town Hall, St Aldate's, Oxford, OX1 1BX, United Kingdom
Palazzo Sisyphus world premiere*
Shor Piano Concerto No. 1
Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D major, ‘Titan’
Behzod Abduraimov piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Marcello Palazzo conductor*
Mahler’s symphonies are his spiritual autobiographies, laying out his experiences and suffering for all to hear. His strikingly confident Symphony No. 1 of 1889 is cast in two parts: first the optimism and energy of youth; then the crisis of rejection and death. Yet Mahler’s symphony powers towards an exultant conclusion, overtly popular in style and imbued with a new confidence – the confidence of life itself. Marios Papadopoulos conducts Mahler’s Titanic symphony here after the world premiere of Sisyphus by University of Oxford and OPO Composers’ Workshop alumnus Marcello Palazzo and another work from our Composer-in-Residence Alexey Shor: with unexpected twists in its traditional structure, Shor’s Piano Concerto No. 1 blends nostalgia and exhilaration, and features the remarkable soloist Behzod Abduraimov.
Young Artists’ Platform
Pre-concert recital 18:00

Beethoven Seven
2025-05-22 19:30 - 21:30 | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Beethoven Overture ‘Coriolan’, Op. 62
Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 6
Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
Carmine Lauri violin
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Marios Papadopoulos takes the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra through the momentous symphonic dance that is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, a work whose pounding, marching and pirouetting permanently realigned western music’s fundamental relationship between rhythm and harmony. Another of our own musicians, Concertmaster Carmine Lauri, is the soloist in the most lyrical and operatic violin concerto by the great guru of virtuosity, Niccolò Paganini, a work that will fill the Sheldonian Theatre with rococo elegance. To open, all the ferocity and impact of one of Beethoven’s most striking orchestral overtures, ‘Coriolan’.

Angela Gheorghiu
2025-06-19 19:30 - 21:30 | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Strauss II Overture Die Fledermaus
Mascagni Prelude & Intermezzo Cavalleria Rusticana
Puccini Preludio sinfonico
Lehár Overture The Merry Widow
Verdi La Traviata Prelude Act I
Puccini ‘In quelle trine morbide’ from Manon Lescaut, Act II
Puccini ‘Donde lieta usci’ from La bohème, Act III
Puccini Manon Lescaut Intermezzo Act III
Puccini ‘Un bel di vedremo’ from Madama Butterfly, Act III
Puccini ‘O mio babbino caro’ from Gianni Schicchi
Angela Gheorghiu soprano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Angela Gheorghiu, one of the most glamorous and gifted opera singers of our time, returns to perform with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra to close the season at the Sheldonian Theatre. Together, they will celebrate a composer to whom she has dedicated a lifetime: Puccini. After landmark appearances as his heroines Tosca and Madama Butterfly on the world’s greatest opera stages, Gheorghiu performs the most beloved arias from Puccini’s operas, while the orchestra brings its storytelling talents to bear in enchanting overtures and tragic intermezzos from favourite operas and operettas.

Haydn Nelson Mass
2026-01-22 19:30 - 21:30 | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
MacKinnon-Botti King of Kings* world premiere
Schoenberg Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, Op. 41
Haydn Mass No. 11 in D minor, ‘Nelson Mass’, Hob. XXII:II
Annie Dutoit-Argerich narrator
Alessandro MacKinnon-Botti beatboxer*
Cédric Pescia piano
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Oxford Philharmonic Choir
The evening begins with a world premiere by MacKinnon-Botti, a contemporary composition that promises to challenge and inspire, featuring the composer himself as beatboxing soloist. This is followed by Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, delivering a dramatic exploration of political power, brought to life through a vivid orchestral and vocal arrangement. The concert concludes with Haydn’s Nelson Mass, a monumental work combining magnificence and emotional depth, showcasing the brilliance of both the orchestra and choir.

Ein Heldenleben
2026-01-29 19:30 - 21:30 | Oxford Town Hall, St Aldate's, Oxford, OX1 1BX, United Kingdom
Dvořák Carnival Overture, Op. 92* side-by-side
Shor Violin Concerto No. 7
Strauss Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40
Giuseppe Gibboni violin
Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey conductor*
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Richard Strauss spent the first half of his career producing a string of opulent, proto-cinematic tone poems that redefined orchestral virtuosity. The most epic of them is also the consummate musical autobiography. Ein Heldenleben is a picture of ambition, bravery and resilience which combines music of unprecedented richness, excitement and tenderness. Strauss’s bold orchestration might scatter its adversaries with panache but it concludes with a humbling glimpse of life’s spiritual journey. Before it, Giuseppe Gibboni is the soloist for the spirited momentum and tender repose of OPO Composer-in-Residence Alexey Shor’s Violin Concerto No. 7.

Maxim Vengerov
2026-02-02 19:30 - 21:30 | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68
Maxim Vengerov violin
Rainer Küchl guest concertmaster
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
Violin virtuoso Maxim Vengerov joins Marios Papadopoulos and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra for a stunning evening of intensity and grandeur. Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major, with its heartfelt and romantic lyricism, provides the perfect showcase for Vengerov’s extraordinary technique and emotional depth. Following, Brahms’s First Symphony unleashes a tidal wave of tension and triumph, with Papadopoulos leading the orchestra through its stirring passages, culminating in a glorious, heroic conclusion.
This concert is supported by Dr Michael Peagram.

Brahms German Requiem
2026-03-08 18:00 - 20:30 | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45
Fflur Wyn soprano
James Atkinson baritone
Crouch End Festival Chorus
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
In 1857, grieving his late mother, Johannes Brahms began work on his choral masterpiece Ein deutsches Requiem. Brahms’s colleague Schumann believed Brahms would deliver ‘wonderful glimpses of the spirit world’. Brahms obliged with a Requiem unlike any other: a piece that carries the gift of spiritual comfort rather than the threat of impending judgment – a glowing message of brotherhood and consolation, a work of its time and place but with universal resonance. Two outstanding soloists and the Crouch End Festival Chorus join the orchestra and Music Director Marios Papadopoulos for Brahms’s consolatory masterpiece.

Nicola Benedetti
2026-04-15 19:30 - 21:30 | Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, United Kingdom
Elgar Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61
Elgar Enigma Variations, Op. 36
Nicola Benedetti violin
Marios Papadopoulos conductor
The great violinist Fritz Kreisler rated Edward Elgar alongside Beethoven and Brahms. When Kreisler said as much in a 1905 newspaper interview, Elgar picked up the threads of a concerto he’d begun nearly two decades earlier. The piece he finished five years later, performed in this concert by the exceptional Nicola Benedetti, is as epic and emotive as it is personal and elusive, ‘enshrining the soul’ of an unknown person. A more famous enigma is found in Elgar’s dazzlingly virtuosic set of variations for orchestra. His Enigma Variations are portraits of friends and celebrations of orchestral panache. But they also offer glimpses into the soul of an artist who might have been careful not to reveal his secrets but was never afraid to show his emotions.

Mozart Requiem
2026-04-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Olivier Hall, St Edward’s School, St Edward's School, Woodstock Rd, Oxford, OX2 7NN, United Kingdom
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488
Mozart Requiem in D minor, K. 626
Sarah Dufresne soprano
Claire Barnett-Jones mezzo-soprano
Joshua Ellicott tenor
Jonathan Lemalu bass
Oxford Philharmonic Choir
Rainer Küchl guest concertmaster
Marios Papadopoulos conductor/piano
Marios Papadopoulos conducts and performs in an evening devoted to the genius of Mozart. The programme opens with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, where Papadopoulos’s delicate yet dynamic piano playing brings this lyrical masterpiece to life. The second half of the concert features Mozart’s Requiem, a profound and dramatic work, performed by the Oxford Philharmonic Choir, capturing both the composer’s deep spirituality and his unparalleled gift for orchestral and choral texture.
