Having seen its audiences bounce back to pre-pandemic levels, Nottingham Classics is in confident mood as it launches its 2025-2026 season with the promise of prize-winning soloists, epic orchestral masterpieces and an operatic journey into the dark heart of one of fairy tale’s most notorious villains.
The new season launches on Thursday 30 September with Nottingham Classics’ resident orchestra, the Hallé, performing Rachmaninov’s expansive 2nd Symphony, conducted by the orchestra’s recently appointed Principal Conductor, Kahchun Wong, who made a big impression on his first visit to the Royal Concert Hall last season. Kahchun also conducts the Hallé in Beethoven’s revolutionary ‘Eroica’ Symphony on Tuesday 10 February. There’s more Beethoven from the Warsaw Philharmonic on Wednesday 20 May when his propulsive 7th Symphony is part of a programme that also includes Chopin’s Romantic 2nd Piano Concerto, performed by the effervescent Romanian-British virtuoso, Alexandra Dariescu.
Soloists in the season cover a wide range of instruments, including Dani Howard’s athletic Trombone Concerto performed on Friday 7 November by the phenomenal Peter Moore, the youngest winner of BBC Young Musician 2008, when just 12 years old. Another champion soloist makes his Nottingham debut when Leeds International Piano Competition winner, Alim Beisenbayev performs Prokofiev’s finger-crunching 2nd Piano Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto features in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s concert on Wednesday 15 October, and lovers of the cello can enjoy a trio of contrasting concertos by Elgar, Shostakovich and Anna Clyne across the season. Multiple prize-winning guitarist Thibaut Garcia takes on Rodrigo’s ever-popular Concierto de Aranjuez on Thursday 16 April, joining the Galicia Symphony Orchestra – the first Spanish orchestra to visit Nottingham for many a year – for a colourful mix of French and Spanish twentieth-century classics.
Probably the most anticipated concerto performance in the season comes on Saturday 10 January when three members of Nottingham’s world-famous Kanneh-Mason family – Braimah (violin), Sheku (cello) and Isata (piano) join forces with Sinfonia Viva for Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. That performance includes more local interest with Nottingham Harmonic Choir performing Brahms’s Shicksalslied and Vaughan Williams’ visionary Toward the Unknown Region. Choral music also features on Wednesday 25 March when the combined choirs of the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University perform Verdi’s dramatic Requiem with the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Towering above the season on Friday 23 January is the brooding presence of Bluebeard’s Castle. Bartók’s bloodstained operatic masterpiece gets a rare performance from the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert hall staging with atmospheric, theatrical lighting.
Complementing the Orchestral Series is the Sunday Piano Series which, this season, welcomes back many audience favourites from previous seasons, including Van Cliburn competition prize-winner Rachel Cheung and Leeds International Piano Competition winner Anna Tsybuleva.
Neil Bennison, who leaves the role of Music Programme Manager at the Royal Concert Hall at the end of this summer, said, “after 17 rewarding years working on Nottingham Classics, it will feel strange not to be here in 2025-2026 but I’m hopefully signing off with a programme that matches the best of previous Nottingham Classics seasons, with plenty of popular and powerful orchestral spectacle, immersive and intimate solo performances, and a few fun surprises to keep everyone interested.”
Tickets for the Nottingham Classics 2025-2026 International Concert Season go on general sale on Monday 23 June 2025 at 10am online at trch.co.uk or through the box office on 0115 989 5555.
Early booking for season tickets opens on Tuesday 10 June at 10am. General booking opens on Monday 23 June. Full details of all concerts can be found at www.trch.co.uk and Nottingham Classics Orchestral Series | Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Posted on 12 June 2025
