The orchestra was founded in 1971: it has become a well-established and respected part of local music-making. The players come from a wide area encompassing West and East Sussex and the orchestra has always enjoyed working with Sussex- based soloists and choirs.

Mid-Sussex Sinfonia has been giving concerts in Hurstpierpoint’s lovely Parish Church for the last eighteen months, and we are now delighted to be taking part in the Hurst Festival for the first time. We are planning to present a concert of well known pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries, with Haydn’s tuneful and lively Cello Concerto in C (one of his early compositions) in the first half. It is a pleasure to welcome Berniya Hamie from Brighton to play the solo cello part.

The principal work will be Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, first performed in 1800. Although he was indebted to his illustrious predecessors, Haydn and Mozart, this is the young Beethoven striding into the new century with his own distinctive
style. Previous composers had to compose for the instruments made available to them by their aristocratic employers but here, Beethoven writes for the full symphony orchestra of woodwind, brass, kettledrums and strings and he makes full use of their potential with his melodic and rhythmic ingenuity.

The concert will open with Mendelssohn’s ever- popular concert overture Fingals Cave, sometimes called The Hebrides’ overture, as it was composed after his visit to the Scottish outer islands.