Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique - Aurora Orchestra - Bonn BeethovenFest

17 September 2022, 19:00

It was a great pleasure to revisit Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique after the thrilling performances, including at the BBC Proms, in 2019. Our first performance in 2022—again, memorised— took place at 18:00 on Saturday 17th September 2022 at the Telekom Forum in Bonn. The performance was live-streamed to YouTube.

We also played Beethoven's Triple Concerto (Op. 56) in the first half of the concert. This featured Renaud Capuçon (violin), Julia Hagen (cello) and Kit Armstrong (piano).

I played first trumpet with Imogen Whitehead on second trumpet. Thomas Nielsen played first cornet, with Simon Cox on second cornet in the Berlioz. After a magnificent concert, the four of us explored Bonn city centre and had dinner in a traditional brewery that I remembered from a previous trip to Bonn and the BeethovenFest, with Les Talens Lyriques. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to admire Beethoven's birthplace.


It was great to be back in Bonn. This is the first time the Aurora Orchestra has been on tour since before the pandemic, presumably since we went to Gstaad in February 2020.

I opted to travel back from Bonn entirely by rail. It was effortless and all the connections worked seamlessly. We got back to London St. Pancras in good time. I then took a train back to Bedford, repacked and made my way to the Isle of Man via Liverpool. I had already booked a trip home, which then coincided with the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II—this meant I was able to watch it with my family on Monday 19th September 2022. It was an incredible spectacle, and the musicians all did an exceptionally good job.

I look forward to next performances of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, including at the Southbank Centre in London, where the Aurora Orchestra is now an orchestra in residence.
Russell Gilmour
Russell Gilmour Blog
writing on music, photography, engraving, travel and life as a freelance professional musician.