Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was one of the most prominent figures in British music of his time and his popular orchestral work Symphonic Variations on an African Air – based on the African-American song ‘I’m troubled in mind’ – remains one of his most enduring works.

Delius’ Piano Concerto follows, blending red-blooded English Romanticism with pastoral-like gentleness, performed here by eminent British pianist Mark Bebbington.

RPO Principal Associate Conductor Alexander Shelley then brings us two works by French composer Lili Boulanger who – in her tragically short lifetime – left an enduring legacy of music, including her beautiful D’un soir triste and symphonic poem D’un matin de printemps.

Tonight’s concert culminates with a return to the quintessentially English music of William Walton and a suite from his stirring score for the 1944 film, Henry V.

Kindly supported by the Delius Trust* and ABO Trust’s Sirens programme**.