Begin the New Year with Tchaikovsky’s first ballet score, Swan Lake and Tales from the Vienna Woods – among some of the many symphonic waltzes composed by Johann Strauss II. 

St Albans Symphony Orchestra (SASO) is preparing a programme with many favourite classics and on Monday, January 2 at St Albans Cathedral.

The orchestra, under its new principal conductor, Tom Hammond, will also perform music in the Viennese style from Der Rosenkavalier, the most popular opera by the German composer Richard Strauss. The orchestral suite brings together the opera’s affectionately-crafted waltzes with transcriptions of celebrated scenes.

The quartet will be led by Pip Eastop, one of Britain’s foremost horn players, who has performed as soloist and guest player with all of London’s major orchestras and held professorships at both the Royal College and the Royal Academy of Music.

The other soloists will be Martin Childs, Alex Wide and SASO’s own principal horn player, Stephen Orriss.

In more winsome style, SASO’s leader Jenny Wigram will feature as the violin soloist in music written by British composer Nigel Hess for the 2004 film Ladies in Lavender. The orchestra will also be strutting its Latin stuff with the Gypsy Tango Jalousie whose melodies will be familiar to many in the audience, even if they are unaware that the composer, Jacob Gade, was Danish.

St Albans Cathedral, St Albans, AL1 1BY, Monday, January 2, 2017. Details: 01727 890290.