'Something for everyone' promise from Harrogate Symphony Orchestra as Winter Concert tickets go on sale

Harrogate Symphony Orchestra will launch its 2026-7 season with its ever-popular Winter Concert at the Royal Hall featuring a varied programme with something for everyone.

Taking place on Saturday, November 14 at 7.30pm, the first half of the HSO’s programme under conductor Bryan Western will begin with Guiseppe Verdi’s overture to La Forza del Destino, which will be instantly recognisable to drinkers of a certain Belgian beer.

The opera, literally translated as The Power of Fate but, popularly, as The Force of Destiny, was first performed in 1862 and is still frequently staged today.

Providing a modern-ish contrast will be the 3rd Piano Concerto by Béla Bartók, with soloist William Green.

Bartók fled from Hungary to America at the outbreak of the Second World War, but his music struggled to find a foothold in the New World.

In 1943, a lucrative commission eased his financial worries and this also coincided with positive progress in his treatment for leukemia.

Perhaps, as a result of these changes in fortune, the 3rd Piano Concerto, which was written as a surprise birthday present for his wife Ditta Pásztory-Bartók, is pleasingly light in tone.

The second half will feature Johannes Brahms, who is rightly considered one of the greats of classical music.

However, many are surprised to find that he completed only four full symphonies, and it is the final one of these that the HSO will perform.

The work was premiered in October 1885 and was immediately well received.

Tickets here