Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra take to the stage for their 150th concert

The concert will be the orchestra’s 150th, and it will be the 128th which founding music director Graham Jones has conducted. They will begin with Mozart’s Magic Flute Overture and end with Dvořák’s Symphony No 6. In between, they will be joined by soloist Kenny Fu for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 4. Tickets are available from WeGotTickets (£14) or Reid and Dean, 43-45 Cornfield Road, Eastbourne, BN21 4QG (£14; £12 for ESO Friends, cash only, opening times may vary) or on the door at the venue (£15; £13 for ESO Friends).

Graham Jones, musical director, who founded the orchestra in 1980, will be conducting the last concert of their 42nd season: “It has been a good year and it's been so good to be up and playing in relatively normal fashion. I think it has been much harder on choirs and choral societies than it has been on orchestras. The powers that be put the scarers on singing and I think that's led to some people deciding not to sing at all but perhaps it has been easier with orchestras. Our numbers are only slightly down, but really only just slightly down.

“They are a really nice group of musicians who are very easy to work with. I think that comes from the fact that we understand each other extremely well and it means that we just get on with it. We make music which is what we do and which is jolly good for the soul.

“The programme for this concert is very interesting. Programming depends on so many things. We are quite dominated by competitions which is in itself fabulous. It's great that the younger musicians are coming through and being given these opportunities. We have our own competition which gave us the soloist at our last concert and now we have got a thing with the Norah Sande competition where the winner plays with us.”

Kenny Fu won the Norah Sande Award 2022 and joins the orchestra for the Beethoven: “I have not heard him yet but he has done lots of interesting things and the interesting thing is that this is bringing together two local institutions to work together.

“With the programming it is good to provide the audience with a balance and also something of a musical journey. We start off in the world of The Magic Flute with its solemnity and its frivolity and we move to the Beethoven which is a very interesting concerto as it is in between the big C Minor 3rd Piano Concerto and the 5th, The Emperor. This one tends not to be played quite so often.

"After Beethoven's death it was neglected and not revived until Mendelssohn did a lot of revivals of various things. And then the Dvorak. I think Dvorak symphonies are fabulous listening. He is such a natural in that his melodies just flow and flow. This is the sixth one which puts it slap in the middle of his symphonic output. We are looking at a mature composer who is well versed in the symphonic form.”