Chester Philharmonic Orchestra at Chester Cathedral

Local award-winning harpist, Bethan Griffiths, will join Chester Philharmonic Orchestra on 22nd April 2023 at 7.30 pm at 7.30 pm in Chester Cathedral.

She will be playing Gliére’s Harp Concerto under the direction of conductor Juan Ortoño.  The concert programme also includes Spring Song by Sibelius and the 4th Symphony by Bruckner.

Bethan Griffiths is a harpist based in North Wales and London.   She graduated with a first-class honours degree from the Royal College of Music along with Master of Performance with Distinction. Gliére’s Harp Concerto is cleverly built around beautiful melodies. It was composed in 1938 in a Viennese style with some Russian influences but sounds as though it had been composed 50 years earlier.

Sibelius’s Spring Song was composed in 1894. This piece is a single movement tone poem for orchestra originally titled Improvisation for Orchestra. It displays a sense of optimism, which is rare for Sibelius’s musical works.  The composition is known for its use of bells at the end of the work.

Finally, the full orchestra is used for Bruckner’s mighty 4th Symphony. His works have been described as ‘cathedrals of sound’, composed to fill the space of a cathedral with music. This piece was revised several times with multiple differences in the orchestration and tempo markings between the three versions that are commonly used.  This piece contrasts beautifully with the gentler Harp Concerto and Spring Song.

Founded in 1884, Chester Philharmonic Orchestra is a non-professional orchestra that performs a wide range of orchestral music with experienced conductors, internationally acclaimed soloists, and rising stars from top music colleges.  More details of all upcoming concerts can be found on the orchestra’s website:

http://www.chesterphilorchestra.co.uk