TENOR Toby Spence joins the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and conductor Frank Zielhorst at Winchester Cathedral on Saturday ( September 24) for an evening concert of symphonic poems and song, featuring seminal works by Debussy, Berlioz and Elgar.

Toby Spence is one of the world’s most accomplished operatic tenors, with strong links with both the English National Opera and Paris Opéra and the BSO is delighted to welcome him back as a guest singer for this special concert.

Opening the programme, Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune is an exemplary model of musical Impressionism, painting a dreamy, languid portrait of a mythical faun playing his pipes alone in the forest. Composed in 1894, the piece marked a turning point in 19th Century music as Debussy rejected conventional compositional practice, stretching the traditional system of keys and tonalities to their limit for the first time.

The centrepiece of the programme will be Toby Spence’s performance of songs by Berlioz, Britten and Vaughan Williams. Taken from Le Nuits d’ete (Summer Nights), a set of six songs setting texts by Theophile Gautier, Berlioz’s Le spectre de la rose tells of a girl’s dreams of the ghost of the rose she had worn to a ball the previous day. Although the rose has died, it has ascended to paradise which is depicted through brilliant scoring featuring shimmering strings and gentle strumming harp.

Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings was composed in 1943 and drew its inspiration from an anthology of poems based on the single theme of night, sleep and dreams. The piece opens with a Prologue for solo horn played using the instrument’s natural harmonics. Performed by the BSO’s Principal Horn, Nicolas Fleury, these haunting tones will surely be a very special experience in the magnificent cathedral setting.

Vaughan Williams’ song cycle, On Wenlock Edge, sets six poems from English poet A. E. Houseman’s collection of works A Shropshire Lad. Whilst the work is strongly influenced by English folk music, typical of Vaughan Williams’ style, there are also clear French influences too in the underlying impressionistic character of the songs, following time spent by the composer with Maurice Ravel in Paris.

Finally, the programme takes in the beautiful surroundings of the Italian coast in Elgar’s concert overture, In the South. Inspired by the composer’s visits to the coastal city of Alassio, the piece is characterised by easy shifts between moods and colourful orchestration, bringing the concert to an exuberant close.

To Buy Tickets: Please visit BSOlive.com or call the Winchester Cathedral box office on 01962 857275