This is the Mayor of Bedford’s concert and at the end of the evening there will be a collection for the Mayor’s three chosen charities: Project 65, BeCHaR (Prebend Day Centre), and St John’s Hospice (Sue Ryder Care)
Dancing tunes and jumping rhythms abound in this programme as audience favourite Leif Segerstam opens the Philharmonia’s season at Bedford Corn Exchange. Stravinsky’s music to The Firebird glitters with magical colours describing the fairytale of the magic bird and the heroic prince; meanwhile Rachmaninov takes one of Paganini’s most famous tunes and transforms it in every way imaginable, through dazzling displays of pianistic virtuosity to Variation 18 that swells in the epitome of Romanticism. Finally Smetana’s symphonic poems about his homeland present visions of Czech legends and landscapes, complete with his famous evocation of the River Vltava running from the mountains through the countryside and into the city of Prague.








