Summer Solstice Concert

Join UH Arts + Culture for their final concert of the season to mark the Summer Solstice, with beautiful summery tunes performed by our resident de Havilland Philharmonic Orchestra.

• Smetana – Vysehrad from Má Vlast (200th Anniversary)
• Mendelssohn – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Incidental Music
• Sibelius – Symphonies 6 and 7

The concert begins with a performance of Vysehrad from Ma Vlast. This is one of the six symphonic poems composed by Czech composer Bedrich Smetana which always open the Prague Spring Festival.

German composer Felix Mendelssohn wrote the ever-popular overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which includes striking instrumental effects such as the wonderful braying of Bottom, some 16 years before the rest of the incidental music. The Orchestra plays a selection of the suite to complete the summery mood of the first half of the concert.

The concert closes with two relatively short symphonies, often paired together, by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The 6th Symphony is lighter in nature than many of the previous symphonies, described by Sibelius himself as ‘cold spring water’ i.e. pure, and lasts about 25 minutes. The 7th Symphony, completed and premiered 100 years ago in 1924, is in just one continuous movement of about 22 minutes and completely original in its form. Apart from two shorter pieces, Sibelius did not compose any other works for the next 30 years and left Symphony No.7 to stand as his final statement on symphonic form.

The concert will take place on Sunday 23 June at 16:00 in the 450-seater Weston Auditorium on the de Havilland Campus at the University of Hertfordshire (AL10 9EU).

Tickets are available for newly reduced rates – between £6-15 (FREE for carers + UH Students) – from the website: www.uharts.co.uk or by calling the Box Office 01707 281 127 (open Mon-Fri 10:00-12:00).

More information:

+ FREE and accessible parking
+ Complimentary tickets for carers + wheelchair accessible seats, please call the Box Office
+ Ground level entrance, ramp + lift for easy access
+ Induction loop available
+ Accessible toilets about 50m from the Auditorium
+ Refreshments available at our Bar Ambition
+ All UH Student tickets will be allocated within the upper circle of the auditorium
+ Following University guidelines, our Box Office is now cashless

For more information visit https://www.uharts.co.uk/whats-on/2024/summer-solstice-concert