25th November 2024
The Orchestra spent an enjoyable and very rewarding day rehearsing with conductor Jonathan Lo on Sunday.
Jonathan is the second of our guest conductors this season and this was the first time that he had met the Orchestra, and players immediately formed a bond with him.
Jonathan leads an interesting and varied life as Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Australian Ballet as well as being a staff conductor for the Royal Ballet in London. He has conducted in concerts, broadcasts and recordings for orchestras such as the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta and the Manchester Camerata. He is currently in the UK to conduct a virtually sold-out run of performances in December and January of the Royal Ballet’s production of Cinderella at the Royal Opera House.
In a very busy day rehearsing with the Bardi he even found time to record an introduction to the concert, which you can watch above, in which he described the Orchestra as ‘sounding fantastic’. As Jonathan says, the concert features a range of centenary performances including Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with soloist Tom Poster. The programme also includes Sibelius’s Symphony No.7, Respighi’s rousing Pines of Rome and, just four years in advance of its centenary, Ravel’s iconic Bolero.
Pines of Rome in rehearsal on Sunday
