We are very excited to announce that our President Martyn Brabbins returns to conduct us on what will be our 60th Birthday concert. Martyn has had a long standing association with Salomon Orchestra not least marked by a series of 'marathon' concerts where we performed all the symphonic works of a particular composer in a single day. With achievements too numerous to mention here we have a special page dedicated to Martyn on our website which you can view at 'Our President'.

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We met young conductor Michal Oren when Salomon Orchestra was asked to perform with the student conductors on Martyn Brabbins' conducting course at the Royal College of Music. We are delighted to be able to give an opportunity to young talent such as Michal and look forward to working with her again. Read more about Michal Oren here.

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Paul Ben-Haim (1897 - 1984) - Symphony No.1 (1940)

Ben-Haim started composing the piece at the end of August 1939 and completed it at the end of June 1940. This is the period after his immigration to Israel, and the end of the days of the fall of France. The composition of the piece is about "the desire to compose a large-scale composition in the spirit of our people and country for our Eretz Israel Orchestra... the terrible rampage of the underworld forces must have had a powerful impact on my composition (at least on its first movement, and to some extent also on its last). Nevertheless, this composition is nothing but absolute pure music..."

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Sir Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934) - Symphony No.1 (1908)

Elgar's Symphony No. 1 in A♭ major, Op. 55 is one of his two completed symphonies. The first performance was given by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Hans Richter in Manchester, England, on 3 December 1908. It was widely known that Elgar had been planning a symphony for more than ten years, and the announcement that he had finally completed it aroused enormous interest. The critical reception was enthusiastic, and the public response unprecedented. The symphony achieved what The Musical Times described as "immediate and phenomenal success", with a hundred performances in Britain, continental Europe and America within just over a year of its première.

The symphony is regularly programmed by British orchestras, and features occasionally in concert programmes in North America and continental Europe. It is well represented on record, with recordings ranging from the composer's 1931 version with the London Symphony Orchestra to modern digital recordings, of which more than 40 have been issued since the mid-1980s.

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