The BBC Concert Orchestra performs at Equilibre in Fribourg on Friday 27 November 2026 at 7.30 pm. The programme pairs Vaughan Williams’s overture The Wasps with British works inspired by ancient Greece.
The story
The roots of the BBC Concert Orchestra go back to 1931, when the BBC Theatre Orchestra was founded. The present orchestra was formed in 1952 from players of the BBC Opera Orchestra. It has around 50 players and is based in London.
Charles Mackerras, Barry Wordsworth, Keith Lockhart and Bramwell Tovey are among its past chief conductors. Since 2023, Anna-Maria Helsing has held the post. She is the first woman to be chief conductor of a BBC orchestra.
The orchestra appears every year at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. It has been associate orchestra at the Southbank Centre since 2014. It is heard on BBC Radio 2 and on the soundtracks of Blue Planet, Serengeti and Wild Isles. It has also worked with P!nk and Stormzy.
Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote his music for The Wasps in 1909. It accompanied a Cambridge University production. Aristophanes’ play mocks the Athenian courts.
The Equilibre hall was designed by Zurich architect Jean-Pierre Dürig. The architecture competition was launched in July 2000 by the communes of Fribourg, Villars-sur-Glâne, Granges-Paccot, Givisiez and Corminboeuf. The main hall seats 681 and faces the Grand-Places park.
Who organises it
The Société des Concerts de Fribourg organises this fourth concert of its 2026–2027 season. It belongs to the Découverte subscription, blue series. The concert is also part of the Concerts de l’Avent partnership.
What to find
Jérôme Kuhn conducts the orchestra. Pianist Teo Gheorghiu is the soloist in Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major. Soprano Claire Booth, mezzo-soprano Clare Presland and tenor Daniel Norman are also announced.
The first half features Dobrinka Tabakova’s Orpheus’ Comet, Vaughan Williams’s overture The Wasps and the Shostakovich concerto. After the interval, the orchestra plays David Buckley’s Oracle. These works by contemporary British composers revisit ancient Greece.
Practical information
- Date, Friday 27 November 2026
- Time, 7.30 pm
- Duration, about 1 hour 30 minutes, including the interval
- Venue, Equilibre, place Jean-Tinguely 1, 1700 Fribourg
- Price, CHF 85, 65 or 50 depending on category, CHF 20 for ages 19 to 26, free up to age 18
- Tickets, online or at the Equilibre-Nuithonie box office, Place Jean-Tinguely 1, Fribourg, 026 350 11 00
Links
- Official site, Concerts Fribourg, BBC Concert Orchestra
- Tickets, Concerts Fribourg, subscriptions and tickets
- Venue, Equilibre-Nuithonie
- All events across French-speaking Switzerland, Genève Infos Agenda
Sources
- Concerts Fribourg, 4th concert, BBC Concert Orchestra, accessed on 14 November 2026
- Concerts Fribourg, subscriptions and tickets, accessed on 14 November 2026
- Fribourg Tourism, 4th subscription concert, accessed on 14 November 2026
- Fribourg Tourism, The Equilibre theatre, accessed on 14 November 2026
- BBC Music Magazine (classical-music.com), All you need to know about the BBC Concert Orchestra, accessed on 14 November 2026
- MusicWeb International, programme notes, Vaughan Williams, The Wasps, accessed on 14 November 2026
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