Walton’s exuberant cantata Belshazzar’s Feast harnesses huge forces to tell the Biblical story of how the Jewish people regained their freedom from exile. Kensington Symphony Orchestra is joined by baritone Paul Sheehan and Epiphoni Consort for this richly orchestrated, jazz-influenced setting, commissioned by the BBC in 1929.

The concert opens with Strauss’s magnificently ambitious Festliches Präludium, while Sibelius’s ever-popular tone poem Finlandia, also performed with Epiphoni Consort, is paired with the composer’s Scènes historiques, Suite No.1 – patriotic music written amid growing Finnish nationalism in the face of Russian censorship.

In more than 60 years of music-making, Kensington Symphony Orchestra has built an enviable reputation as one of the UK’s most accomplished non-professional orchestras.

Established classics, neglected masterpieces and works by today’s leading composers are hallmarks of KSO’s repertoire, performed with a skill and panache that has garnered widespread acclaim.

Running times

Doors open: 7pm
Act I: 7:30pm - 8:15pm
Interval: 8:15pm - 8:40pm
Act II: 8:40pm - 9:20pm

All timings are approximate and may change on day