Classical concerts and ballet in Surrey Downs

Local Dorking resident and music enthusiast Ian Codd rounds up the best in classical, orchestral and ballet productions coming to Surrey Downs this April

Dorking Halls kicks off the month with a live screening of The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogonny, on April 1, direct from The Royal Opera House. This production, by Kurt Weill, is an impassioned satire of consumerism.

Another live operatic performance hits Dorking Hall's screens on April 19, this time all the way from the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible is a powerful and fascinating epic, dramatising the reign of the mad Russian king. (Tickets are £17, with £14 concessions and a discount for friends of Dorking Hall).

The middle of the month sees Dorking Halls playing host to the annual Leith Hill Musical Festival. One of the major events in the Surrey music calendar, April 9-11 is three days of concerts and competitions, involving a dozen local choirs and hundreds of enthusiastic singers.

Each morning starts with rehearsal and competition between choral divisions, from 9am – 1pm. Everyone's welcome to drop by and listen, just by purchasing that day's programme.

Once their battle is completed, that day's choirs join forces in the 7:30pm for a combined concert directed by the Festival Conductor, Brian Kay. Among classics by Mozart, Hardn and Schubert are a few less well-known pieces.

April 9 sees a rare performance of The Garden of Propserpine, a recently unearthed piece by Vaughan Williams, while April 10 features the world premiere of Dances of Time, a work commissioned especially for the festival, and the similarly-commissioned Awake Ye Heavenly Choirs receives its second ever performance on April 11 (ticket prices vary).

Leith Hill Musical Festival

The Vienna Festival Ballet celebrates its 35th Anniversary Gala at Dorking Halls on April 17. This classical ballet company will perform some of the best-loved scenes from Tchaikovsky's ballets, including Act 2 of Swan Lake, the journey to the land of snow from The Nutcracker, and the Rose adagio from Sleeping Beauty. This should be a real treat for all lovers of ballet.

The very next day, on April 18, the Dorking Concertgoers present a flute recital by Rosanna Ter-Berg with Leo Nicholson on piano. Their attractive and varied programme includes Debussy’s atmospheric Syrinx for solo flute, Poulenc’s bright and playful flute sonata, music by Mozart, Schubert and Liszt, and a modern classic for the flute entitled Zoom Tube by Ian Clarke. It's a mixed programme that should appeal to a wide audience.