Brabbins, Ben Haim & Elgar: the Salomon Orchestra celebrates its 60th birthday at St John's Smith Square

The Salomon Orchestra at St John's Smith Square

One of London's finest non-professional orchestras, the Salomon Orchestra, is celebrating its 60th birthday this year. Conceived in 1963 by the conductor Nicholas Braithwaite and a group of his contemporaries, the orchestra gives three main concerts per year in London, each with a different conductor. The orchestra's 2023-2024 season opens on Saturday 14 October 2023 with a celebratory concert at St John's Smith Square where the orchestra will be conducted by Martyn Brabbins and Michal Oren. 

The concert opens with Michal Oren conducting Martyn Brabbins' A Birthday Greeting, written to celebrate the orchestra's birthday, then Oren conducts Paul Ben Haim's Symphony No 1. Written in 1940, seven years after Paul Ben Haim had escaped Germany and fled to the then British Mandate of Palestine, the work was written for the Palestine Orchestra (now the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra) which had been established in 1936. The symphony reflects both the dark forces present in Europe at the time, and the weight of being the first Israeli symphony.

In the second half of the concert, Martyn Brabbins conducts the orchestra in Elgar's Symphony No. 1, which was premiered by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Hans Richter in Manchester on 3 December 1908.

Full details from St John's Smith Square website.