Beethoven aria to get Scottish first

Also joining the orchestra in a beautiful early Debussy piece, The Blessèd Damozel, will be top female vocal group MOSAIC, trained and led by Grace Payne.

The main work in the second half will be Beethoven’s first symphony, preceded by an extreme rarity that most musicians will stoutly deny its existence.

In 1795, Beethoven supplied an extra number for an obscure colleague, Ignaz Umlauf’s even obscurer opera The Beautiful Shoemaker’s Wife. The aria Should a Shoe Not Squeeze? will receive what conductor Geoffrey Emerson firmly believes will its first ever performance in Scotland, sung by Kate Fish.

The programme opens with an overture by a Yorkshire composer, William Sterndale Bennett, whose music was much admired.

Tickets for the St Andrews Episcopal Church in Kelso cost £8, friends of the sinfonia £6 and students free. They can be bought at Red Shed Tickets at Live Act, 18 Roxburgh Street, and Hector Innes Photography, or by phoning 01573 420279.