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RSNO Christmas Concert

Dec 2009 (annual)

Cost: £10-£30

Hours: 3pm & 7.30pm

Join in the festive spirit with popular seasonal classics and carols in this special concert at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall. Joining the Royal Scottish National Orchestra are conductor Christopher Bell and the RSNO Chorus.

In the afternoon performance the festive fun also sees the RSNO Junior Chorus taking part. Featured in both concerts is the famous cartoon of Raymond Briggs' The Snowman, with music (including its theme Walking in the Air) by Howard Blake.

Although based in Glasgow, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra tours the country as well as playing regular series at home in Glasgow and in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh.

The orchestra's antecedents can be traced back to 1891 and the foundation of the Scottish Orchestra, which numbered conductors such as Max Bruch, Vaclav Talich, Sir John Barbirolli, George Szell and Walter Susskind before its official reorganisation in 1950. Since then its principal conductors have been Sir Alexander Gibson, Neeme Järvi, Bryden Thomson and Walter Weller, under whom the orchestra has gone from strength to strength.

Between 1997 and 2005 Russian maestro Alexander Lazarev was at the helm, including complete Shostakovich and Prokofiev cycles in his seasons. From September 2005 the orchestra's new music director Stéhane Denéve has refocused the programmes to add a French flavour, and the orchestra has instigated new ideas to attract new audiences, including Symphonies at 6pm and Naked Classics, exploring a single work in greater depth.

Royal Concert Hall