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As part of Kings Place's year-long London Unwrapped season, celebrating the capital city as melting pot and cultural nexus, Aurora Orchestra play English string music spanning 100 years with strong London links.

Both Elgar's Introduction and Allegro and Walton's Sonata were commissioned by London ensembles – the London Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields respectively – the Elgar, a classic of the string orchestra repertoire, the Walton getting a rare outing this evening. Kate Whitley is a founder of the innovative London-based Multi-Story Orchestra which began its life in a south-east London car park. Her nostalgic, rapturous Autumn Songs was inspired by the change in the seasons from late summer to early autumn. Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings was premiered in 1943 at Wigmore Hall with the two soloists for whom it was written, Peter Pears and legendary horn player Dennis Brain. Tonight, Allan Clayton and Pip Eastop take those roles in this darkly dazzling 20th-century classic, which at once demonstrates Britten's unerring ear for setting English poetry and his instinctive way with instrumental and vocal virtuosity.

Recorded last month at Kings Place and introduced by Ian Skelly.

Whitley: Autumn Song
Elgar: Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47

8.00 pm
Interval Music (from CD)
Schumann: Adagio and Allegro in A flat major, Op. 70
Dennis Brain (horn)
Benjamin Britten (piano)

8.15 pm
Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31
Walton: Sonata for String Orchestra

Allan Clayton (tenor)
Pip Eastop (horn)
Aurora Orchestra
Nicholas Collon (conductor)