A Terrible Beauty – English String Music, from 1900 to 1939

Temple Church, London, Great Britain

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Select date and time

12:30 PM 7:30 PM

Important Info

Type: Classical Concert

City: London, Great Britain

Starts at: 19:30

Duration:

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Programme

Overview

Dive into the radiant lyricism and haunting depth of early twentieth-century English string music with "A Terrible Beauty." From the timeless suspension of Tallis to the vibrant tensions of Tippett, this evening bridges nostalgia and modernity in unforgettable soundscapes. Experience an evocative journey of shimmering elegance and poignant intensity.Under the direction of Rachael Montésino Young, the newly formed London Virtuosi Ensemble illuminates the extraordinary flowering of English string music between the Edwardian era and the interwar years. The programme unfolds with Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, its soaring lines suspended in a moment beyond time, then moves into the aching tenderness of Elgar’s Sospiri and Elegy, where every phrase speaks of loss and longing. Frank Bridge’s Valse–Intermezzo shimmers with the glittering surface of a vanished world, while Tippett’s Concerto for Double String Orchestra bursts with rhythmic vitality that conceals an undercurrent of tension. Elgar’s Introduction & Allegro delivers sweeping grandeur through intricate interplay, and the evening concludes in the luminous spirituality of Vaughan Williams. This evocative concert invites you into a sound world of warmth, passion and poignancy—intimate and expansive, deeply English yet universal in its humanity.

Venue Info