Nesbit, Prokofiev, Hicks and Respighi – 20 June 2026

Edward Nesbit – Consolation and Joy (world premiere)
Sergei Prokofiev – Symphony-Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
Stephen Hicks – Your boundaries are the sky
Ottorino Respighi – Pines of Rome

Smith Square Hall, Westminster, London SW1P 3HF

20 June 2026, 7.30pm

Marc Dooley conductor
Tom Evans leader
Paolo Baroni cello

Tickets

Tickets £14, concessions £12, under-16s £9. Booking fees apply.

Book now

About this concert

A concert of joyful symphonic masterpieces in celebration of the life of FSO’s former principal trumpet Stephen Hicks.

Edward Nesbit’s music has been performed by many of the UK’s leading orchestras and ensembles. His new work, commissioned by FSO with support from the Nigel Blake Celebration Fund, is dedicated to Stephen Hicks’s memory.

Written for the legendary cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto is a formidable and virtuosic work. It combines lyrical beauty and playful energy with moments of the composer’s trademark sardonic wit.

In Your boundaries are the sky, Stephen Hicks explores a vast sonic landscape, from whispered heights to subterranean depths, where musical ideas emerge, collide and drift away.

The programme concludes with Respighi’s spectacular musical postcard Pines of Rome, which paints a succession of scenes across the city, from playful children to nighttime birdsong, culminating in a triumphant, cinematic finale.

Soloist

Paolo Baroni, born in Belfast in 1977, was inspired to take up the cello by seeing Jacqueline du Pré perform on television. He studied music at the University of York, where he won the concerto prize with Kabalevsky’s Cello Concerto No. 2. After moving to London he studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Stefan Popov, a pupil of Mstislav Rostropovich, for whom Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto was written. Today, Paolo performs regularly including orchestral, chamber and duo repertoire. He also sings as a bass with St Albans Cathedral Choir and the City of London Chamber Choir.