Concert Details

Walton Double Bill (as part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival)

Sat 23 May 2026, 7:30pm
Saint Andrews Hall, Norwich – Venue details

Roderick Williams – baritone
Orator – tbc
Norwich Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra
conducted by Matthew Andrews and Ashley Grote

Walton: Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario (arr. Christopher Palmer)
Walton: Belshazzar’s Feast

The Norwich Philharmonic celebrate their return to the Norfolk & Norwich Festival with an exciting double bill of music by Sir William Walton featuring the choir and orchestra as well as two conductors, a star singer and a star actor.

Henry V – A Shakespeare Scenario is a compilation by Christopher Palmer of music Walton wrote for the 1944 Laurence Olivier film of Henry V, together with major speeches from Shakespeare’s play. With much more of Walton’s music than appears in the well-known orchestral suite, it features a major role for an orator which will be played by one of Britain’s leading Shakespearian actors – details to follow.

One of his most popular works, Walton’s cantata, Belshazzar’s Feast, is one of the great British choral works of the 20th century with huge choruses and thrilling writing for the orchestra. Writing in The Gramophone, Andrew Mellor described it as “wicked, raucous, barbaric and outlandishly exuberant”. Certainly a large orchestra with massive percussion section and the 120 plus voices of the Phil Chorus will make a very big sound – one which scandalised the first audience in 1931. The baritone soloist will be none other than the international opera star, Roderick Williams OBE.

Tickets from £15-£40 at https://nnfestival.org.uk/