Hannah Kendall – The Spark Catchers
Claude Debussy (orchestrated by Colin Matthews) – Selection from Préludes: La Puerta del Vino, Ondine, La fille aux cheveux de lin, La cathédrale engloutie
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 5
Smith Square Hall, Westminster, London SW1P 3HF
14 November 2026, 7.30pm
Marc Dooley conductor
Tom Evans leader
Tickets
Tickets £14, concessions £12, under-16s £9. Online booking fees apply.
There is no booking fee for tickets bought in person from the Smith Square Hall box office.
About this concert
Hannah Kendall’s ‘The Spark Catchers’ pays tribute to the women and girls employed at a match factory in London’s East End, who went on strike in 1888 protesting their hazardous working conditions. It is inspired by a poem by Lemn Sissay, commissioned for the London 2012 Olympics.
A selection of Debussy’s piano Préludes, reimagined for orchestra by Colin Matthews, evokes the Alhambra’s imposing Wine Gate, a mischievous water nymph, a portrait of ‘the girl with the flaxen hair’, and a legendary cathedral rising from the sea.
The concert concludes with Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, which spans extremes of emotion, from the darkness of its opening funeral march to an exuberant finale, with the famous Adagietto at its heart.
Fulham Symphony Orchestra 