The programme for this weekend’s Hitchin Symphony Orchestra concert includes music by the noted British composer Peter Maxwell Davies, who died earlier this year.

The Comet: Paul Adrian RookePaul Adrian Rooke (Image: Archant)

The programme includes work by Tchaikovsky and Brahms as well as Elgar’s spirited and youthful concert overture Froissart.

But also featuring will be the short but beautiful Maxwell Davies composition Farewell to Stromness.

Conductor Paul Adrian Rooke said: “We are including this piece as a tribute to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, one of Britain’s greatest composers.

“He was one of the major influences on my musical and teaching life – I was greatly influenced by his unconventional teaching methods and I attended many first performances of his intentionally provoking early pieces.

“Farewell to Stromness, possibly his most popular piece, is completely the opposite – a short, very melodious work originally written for piano but arranged for strings by Rosemary Furness.”

Pianist Ben Ward is the soloist for Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto, with the majestic sounds of the third symphony by Brahms also set to fill Hitchin’s historic St Mary’s Church on Saturday night.

Tickets for the concert, which starts at 7.30pm are £14 for adults with £12 concessions available. Accompanied children under 16 get in free.

Call 01462 458614 to book, call into the Hitchin Initiative offices in Churchyard or search Hitchin Symphony Orchestra online at www.wegottickets.com.