Kensington Symphony Orchestra returns to Fairfield Halls with mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston.

Kensington Symphony Orchestra’s 2022/23 season continues with a return to Fairfield Halls on Saturday 20 May, when the orchestra joins forces with acclaimed mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, a BBC New Generation Artist, for a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No.3 (1896).

The work – Mahler’s longest, and the longest symphony in the standard repertoire, typically lasting around 95 to 110 minutes – consists of six movements that are markedly different in construction and tone. It is divided into two parts: the colossal first movement, which opens with a theme based on Brahms’s Symphony No.1, forms Part I, while the remaining five comprise Part II.

The second movement is a graceful minuet with stormier episodes, followed by a scherzo that quotes a Spanish folk melody also incorporated into works by Glinka and Liszt. The fourth movement features a solo mezzo-soprano singing a setting of Nietzsche’s “Midnight Song” from Also sprach Zarathustra; in the fifth movement, the mezzo-soprano is joined by a children’s choir and a female chorus for a cheerful song loosely based on a 17th-century hymn about redemption from sin.

Mahler originally referred to the work as ‘A Summer’s Midday Dream’ and spoke of being intrigued by the idea of Pan: both the Greek god and the Greek word meaning “all”. On its première in 1902 – after which the composer was called back to the podium 12 times – the critic William Ritter described the final movement as “perhaps the greatest Adagio written since Beethoven”.

Described as “one of the very best amateur groups in the country” by Classical Music magazine, KSO has been hailed by Classical Source for “putting on bold, adventurous programmes that few of the ‘big five’ in London would either think of or get away with”. The orchestra’s 2022/23 season concludes with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.6, ‘Pathétique’, at Cadogan Hall in June.

Running Times
Doors: 7pm
Concert: 7:30pm - 9:15pm
Please note there is no interval
All timings are approximate and may change on day