BBC Radio 3's Concert: Spring, Song and celebration is coming to Ulster Hall on 18 August 2026!
Enjoy an afternoon of much-loved masterpieces and rarely heard gems, with local connections.
This programme opens with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K.488, one of the crowning achievements of the Classical repertoire. Loved for its lyrical grace, radiant charm and profound emotional depth, it contains some of Mozart's most inspired music, including a slow movement of extraordinary beauty.
The multi awarding-winning pianist Mishka Momen will make her debut in Ulster Hall as a soloist.
“one of the most thoughtful and sensitive of British pianists” The Times
From Mozartian magic, we move to a concert overture by Johan Wagenaar: the Dutch organist and composer’s Joy of Spring Op. 11. Written in 1892, the work showcases his flair for creating music of exuberance and warmth, with hints of the influence of composers like Berlioz and Richard Strauss.
We come closer to home to round off the concert, with works by Stanford and Charles Wood: teacher and student. The Dublin-born composer taught Wood at the Royal College of Music in the 1880s, after his move from Armagh, where he’d been a choirboy at the Church of Ireland cathedral. Their connection also went further, as Wood succeeded Stanford as Professor of Music at Cambridge University. The Stanford Concert Overture, written when he was just 18, is one of his earliest surviving orchestral works, revealing a remarkable musical maturity and youthful energy. The Patrick Sarsfield Variations which follow, are based on the Irish tune Patrick Sarsfield, associated with the celebrated 17th-century Irish soldier and Jacobite hero. Written in 1899, they display Wood’s fine approach to melody and the classical skills inherited from Stanford: a fitting tribute to Wood, in this the centenary year of his death.
Programme
Mozart: Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 488
Johan Wagenaar: Concert Ouverture Op. 11, “Joy of Spring”
Stanford : Concert Overture
Charles Wood: 'Patrick Sarsfield' Variations
Mishka Momen (piano)
Ulster Orchestra
Jac van Steen (conductor)
