Monday 23rd February:
Bridgewater Hall – St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. One of Russia’s leading ensembles, the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra is steeped in history. Formed in 1931 as the Leningrad Radio Orchestra it remained in the besieged city of Leningrad during the war, performing the premiere of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony. Chief Conductor Alexander Dmitriev controls proceedings as Alexander Sitkovetsky (violin), Freddy Kempf (piano) and Natalie Clein (cello) are featured during performances of Sibelius’ Karelia Suite, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 2 in E minor. Tickets £40 – £14. 7.30pm.
Thursday 26th February:
Royal Northern College of Music – RNCM Concert Orchestra and Chamber Choir. This free lunchtime concert features Mozart’s Coronation Mass and God is our Refuge, conducted by Roger Hamilton and Stuart Overington. Free, no ticket required. 1.15pm.
Bridgewater Hall – Fournier Trio. The outstanding Fournier Trio put on a lunchtime concert at the Bridgewater Hall. The trio, Sulki Yu (violin), Pei-Jee Ng (cello) and Chiao-Ying Chang (piano) formed in 2009 and have quickly established themselves as one of the leading chamber ensembles in the UK, winning the prestigious 2013 Parkhouse Award in 2013 and placing highly in several other competitions. They will be performing Haydn’s Piano Trio in A major and Schumann’s Piano Trio No. 3 in G minor. Tickets £11.50, £9.50 (concessions); £7.00 student. 1.10pm
Royal Northern College of Music – Olafur Arnalds. Icelandic composer and performed Olafur Arnalds returns to the RNCM will a full live band show. The classical, pop and electronic crossover artist has built a strong reputation since the release of his 2007 debut Eulogy for Evolution and will shortly be releasing his collaboration work with pianist Alice Sara Ott, The Chopin Project. Tickets £20. 8.30pm.
Image courtesy of Matt Trudeau / Flickr published under creative commons license
