Kensington Symphony Orchestra: An all-British programme at Smith Square Hall, London on Sunday 16th November 2025

Please note: This concert is in the past and has already taken place.

Kensington Symphony Orchestra

An all-British programme

Part of the Kensington Symphony Orchestra 2025-2026 Cycle

Add to my Calendar 16-11-2025 15:00 16-11-2025 17:00 36 Kensington Symphony Orchestra Kensington Symphony Orchestra returns to Smith Square Hall on Sunday 16 November, when music director Russell Keable leads the group in an all-British programme of music culminating in Ruth Gipps’s Symphony No.4 (1972).Gipps – a child prodigy who carved out a career as a soloist, conductor, composer, lecturer and critic – was a pupil of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and her final symphony was dedicated to fellow composer Arthur Bliss. Nodding to influences as varied as Delius and Ravel, this quintessentially English four-movement work comprises an alternately fiery and reserved opening, a delicate Adagio, a playful Scherzo and an irresistibly joyful Finale. The concert opens with Bishop Rock (1952), one of Doreen Carwithen’s four orchestral works.  Hailing from a musical family, and going on to marry fellow composer William Alwyn, Carwithen wrote scores for more than 30 films, with this “vivid and original” overture having been described as “unashamedly theatrical”. The work pays tribute to Bishop Rock, one of the westernmost of the Isles of Scilly and, thanks to its famous lighthouse, the world’s smallest island with a building on it.   KSO also performs James MacMillan’s The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (1990), which was composed as a requiem for a woman who was burnt as a witch in post-Reformation Scotland, probably in 1662. Elegiac interludes are punctured by violent outbursts in this three-section work for large orchestra, which also incorporates Scottish folk tunes and Gregorian chant, and was rapturously received at its première at the BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1990. 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”. Smith Square Hall, London DD/MM/YYYY

Details

Smith Square Hall
Smith Square
City of Westminster
London
SW1P 3HA
England

Sunday 16th November 2025
3:00 PM

Programme

Doreen Carwithen – Bishop Rock Overture
James MacMillan – The Confession of Isobel Gowdie
~ Interval ~
Ruth Gipps – Symphony no.4, Op.61

Performers

Alan Tuckwood – Leader
Russell Keable – Conductor

Kensington Symphony Orchestra

Programme Note

Kensington Symphony Orchestra returns to Smith Square Hall on Sunday 16 November, when music director Russell Keable leads the group in an all-British programme of music culminating in Ruth Gipps’s Symphony No.4 (1972).
Gipps – a child prodigy who carved out a career as a soloist, conductor, composer, lecturer and critic – was a pupil of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and her final symphony was dedicated to fellow composer Arthur Bliss. Nodding to influences as varied as Delius and Ravel, this quintessentially English four-movement work comprises an alternately fiery and reserved opening, a delicate Adagio, a playful Scherzo and an irresistibly joyful Finale.

The concert opens with Bishop Rock (1952), one of Doreen Carwithen’s four orchestral works. Hailing from a musical family, and going on to marry fellow composer William Alwyn, Carwithen wrote scores for more than 30 films, with this “vivid and original” overture having been described as “unashamedly theatrical”. The work pays tribute to Bishop Rock, one of the westernmost of the Isles of Scilly and, thanks to its famous lighthouse, the world’s smallest island with a building on it.

KSO also performs James MacMillan’s The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (1990), which was composed as a requiem for a woman who was burnt as a witch in post-Reformation Scotland, probably in 1662. Elegiac interludes are punctured by violent outbursts in this three-section work for large orchestra, which also incorporates Scottish folk tunes and Gregorian chant, and was rapturously received at its première at the BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1990.

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 coast at Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, where the composer Ruth Gipps was born.

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