A theme of triumph over conflict runs through Richmond Orchestra’s autumn programme.

 

Tchaikovsky’s overture, encapsulating Shakespeare’s great tale of two young lovers from rival feuding families, confirms in the end, it is love which always wins.

 

Khachaturian’s Spartacus ballet remains one of his best known works. Based on the true story of a slave uprising against the Romans, the struggle for freedom is the background to one of the finest love themes ever composed.

 

Nielsen’s mighty symphony, composed just over a century ago, has been described as the composer’s response to the Great War. The battle between life and death, positive and negative, hope and despair,  has rarely been so eloquently expressed.