Britten Sinfonia - Earth and other planets

Events > Britten Sinfonia – Earth and other planets

Britten Sinfonia – Earth and other planets

Thursday 29th January 2026

A Meeting of Classical and Folk Music

The Leading UK Chamber Orchestra

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First Class Programme

Britten English Folksong Suite: A Time There Was
Stevens & Pound Medley: Britten & Grainger folk tunes
Grainger Lincolnshire Posy*
Holst/Stevens & Pound, orch. Ian Gardiner The Silent Planet (Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Earth)

Internationally celebrated writer Robert Macfarlane (Is A River Alive?, The Lost Words) joins folk duo Stevens & Pound and orchestra Britten Sinfonia in an exhilarating re-imagining of Gustav Holst’s The Planets, full of tunes familiar from TV and film. Holst didn’t include Earth in his orchestral suite, and this omission is put right with a newly-composed movement accompanied by a significant new text written and narrated by Robert Macfarlane.

Holst didn’t include Earth in his orchestral suite, and this omission is put right with a newly-composed movement accompanied by a significant new text written and narrated by Robert Macfarlane.

Inspired By and Derived From Folk Melodies

In the first half, Britten Sinfonia perform two orchestral works inspired by and derived from folk melodies. Britten’s Suite on English Folk Tunes, subtitled “A Time There Was”, presents a range of tunes, ranging from rollicking fiddle dances to exquisite, valedictory melancholy, with his unmistakable brilliance. The suite is dedicated to the memory of Percy Grainger, whose own characterful suite, A Lincolnshire Posy, is based on folk songs he collected in the county more than a century ago. In this extravagantly scored tour de force, Britten Sinfonia's winds and brass are augmented by those of Sinfonia Smith Square.

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