BBC Radio 3 Summer Invitation Concert: Gems in the Shadows, 27 August | Event in Belfast | AllEvents

BBC Radio 3 Summer Invitation Concert: Gems in the Shadows

Ulster Orchestra

Highlights

Wed, 27 Aug, 2025 at 01:05 pm

Ulster Hall

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Date & Location

Wed, 27 Aug, 2025 at 01:05 pm (BST)

Ulster Hall

Ulster Hall, 30 Bedford Street, Belfast, BT2 7FF, United Kingdom

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About the event

BBC Radio 3 Summer Invitation Concert: Gems in the Shadows
Mendelssohn Melusine Overture
Beethoven Symphony No.4

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Sinead Hayes: Conductor

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Join BBC Radio 3 for a FREE lunchtime invitation concert with the Ulster Orchestra, shining a spotlight on sometimes overlooked works by Mendelssohn and Beeethoven.

The programme opens with Mendelssohn’s The Fair Melusina Overture. The composer wrote it in 1834 as a birthday gift for his sister, Fanny, and it depicts a woman who bore a curse, turning her into a water sprite from the waist down every Saturday. This magical piece, opening with a burbling motif, captures and conveys something quintessentially aquatic. Despite being one of his least-known orchestral works, Mendelssohn wrote a letter to Fanny, declaring it “the best” and “most intimate” piece he had ever produced.

Beethoven wrote his Fourth Symphony some 28 years earlier. At that time he was on a roll. He'd got the Razumovsky Quartets and the Violin Concerto under his belt, and this symphony is confident and bouncing with life. It's sometimes seen as being overshadowed by the mighty symphonies Beethoven wrote on either side of it. Indeed, Robert Schumann dismissively called the Fourth Symphony "a slender Greek maiden between two Norse giants". But Hector Berlioz was nearer the mark when he said that the slow movement was the work of the Archangel Michael, and not that of a human.

The Irish conductor Sinéad Hayes takes the Ulster Hall podium.


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Ticket Info

Tickets for BBC Radio 3 Summer Invitation Concert: Gems in the Shadows can be booked here.

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Ulster Hall, Ulster Hall, 30 Bedford Street, Belfast, BT2 7FF, United Kingdom

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Ulster Orchestra

Ulster Orchestra

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BBC Radio 3 Summer Invitation Concert: Gems in the Shadows, 27 August | Event in Belfast | AllEvents
BBC Radio 3 Summer Invitation Concert: Gems in the Shadows
Wed, 27 Aug, 2025 at 01:05 pm