BEETHOVEN 200

Schubert Symphony No 8 ('Unfinished')
Wieniawski Violin Concerto No 2
Beethoven Symphony No 5

26 June 2027 7.30 pm

Agata Zając  conductor
Jennifer Pike violin

We don’t know why Schubert never finished his eighth symphony. It has been one of music’s great unanswered questions for two hundred years. The work only came to light long after his death and comprises just two luminous movements and the first few tantalising bars of a third. There have been numerous attempts to "finish" it but it remains at its best the way Schubert left it.

Polish violin virtuoso, Henryk Wieniawski was a contemporary of Max Bruch, though did not enjoy so long a life. The second violin concerto is generally considered his finest work: richly melodic and a popular concerto of the Romantic era. We are delighted to perform it with Polish conductor, Agata Zając and the internationally renowned soloist, Jennifer Pike, who has roots in both Stockport and Poland.

And to conclude our season, the epic, iconic masterpiece that is Beethoven's fifth symphony, 200 years and three months after his death on 26 March 1827.