Classical Contrasts

The Rhapsody Orchestra presents Classical Contrasts, its next concert of the season, on Saturday, 24 October 2026 at the Odeion Auditorium. The programme brings together three very different works from the orchestral repertoire, each drawn from a different era and each painting its own distinct musical world.

The concert opens with Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture. Composed after the young Mendelssohn’s 1829 voyage to the Scottish island of Staffa, the overture evokes the sea and the towering basalt columns of Fingal’s Cave, its rolling string passages rising and falling like the swell of the waves. The orchestra then turns to the Classical era with Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, with Dingaan Chabalala as soloist. Written in 1796 for the newly invented keyed trumpet, the concerto sets a lyrical slow movement between two bright, festive outer movements, closing with a famously virtuosic finale. The evening ends with Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, drawn from the ballet The Nutcracker. Set on Christmas Eve, the ballet has become one of the world’s most enduring Christmas classics and offers audiences an early taste of the festive season.