Last updated 16:03, Wednesday, 27 August 2008

SIX international orchestras are to perform at Carlisle's Sands Centre as part of its concert series for 2008/2009.

Over the years there have been visits from Russian orchestras. And two of the most distinguished, the Moscow Philharmonic and the Russian State Philharmonic, present dramatic programmes of Russian music from Rimsky Korsakov, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Khachaturian.

Old friends the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic pay another visit under their new music director, Vasily Petrenko, with young pianist, Paul Lewis, to perform Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture and 1st Piano Concerto, followed by Brahms’ majestic Symphony No.4.

The Halle return to The Sands Centre in their 150th Anniversary year under Edward Gardner, the music director of the English National Opera, with the eminent American pianist Garrick Ohlsson as soloist. They present a programme of Elgar’s Introduction & Allegro, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3, concluding with Sibelius’s Night Ride & Sunrise and Symphony No.5.

The BBC Philharmonic, under music director Gianandrea Noseda, open their programme with Haydn’s Mercury Symphony, which marks the 200th Anniversary of this great composer’s death.

The much-admired leading British clarinettist Mark Simpson will perform Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and Maestro Noesda will give his famous interpretation of Mahler’s epic Symphony No.1 often known as the ‘Titan’.

The season will be brought to a conclusion with the Czech Republic’s distinguished Prague Symphony Orchestra, under the Czech conductor Petr Altrichter.

He is famous in the UK for his artistic directorship of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. They will open with Dvorak’s Carnival Overture, the leading Russian cellist Nina Kotova will join the orchestra in a performance of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto. And there will be three excerpts from Smetana’s epic Ma Vlast.

Tickets for individual concerts are available from the box office 01228 625222.