Jashandeep Reehal and his Holland Park Sinfonia will be returning to St Peter’s Church, Notting Hill for their next concert on 13 November 2026 which features music written in the 1940s and 1950s by three very different distinguished composers, one German, one Austrian/American and one English.
The programme features Richard Strauss’s late masterpiece, his Oboe Concerto (with soloist Sasha Puller) written in 1945 as a result of a discussion with a US Army corporal who turned out to be principal oboe with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Another late work is Korngold’s Theme & Variations, written in 1953 for the American School Orchestras Association and Korngold’s last completed original work before his death in 1957. Completing the programme is Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 5 written between 1938 and 1943. Despite the composer being 71 when the work was premiered, this is hardly a ‘late’ work as Vaughan Williams would continue writing until his death in 1958, producing four further symphonies.
The orchestra’s previous concert in June featured a programme combining Rachmaninoff and Barber and you can catch a video of their performance in my article. Jashandeep Reehal is a self-taught musician from Punjab, India who moved to London three to four years ago. He never studied music and taught himself how to play guitar, piano, compose and arrange. Growing up in a small town in India, classical music was never something that existed and as a culture, Sikh people never ever ventured into that world, and he speculates that he is most probably the first ever turbaned Sikh conductor.
Full details of the concert from the orchestra’s website.
