OSJ Ashmolean Voices

OSJ proms  Ashmolean Museum n Tonight, 7.30pm

Tickets: 0845 680 1926

Join the OSJ for this special tribute to St Cecilia, the patron saint of music, in the gloriously atmospheric setting of the Ashmolean’s Atrium. The programme includes Purcell’s Ode for St Cecilia and Hail! Bright Cecilia, Handel’s Ode for St Cecilia’s Day and Britten’s Hymn to St Cecilia.

Philharmonia/ Nelsons

BRAHMS CYCLE

 Sheldonian Theatre

Friday, 7.30pm

Tickets: 01865 244806 or visit musicatoxford.com

Music at Oxford’s new season kicks off in glorious style with this wonderful celebration of Brahms, presented by one of the UK’s most prestigious orchestras and their dynamic guest conductor, Andris Nelsons. The programme includes Brahms’ first and third symphonies, both regarded as pinnacles of the German romantic repertoire, alongside his lesser-known St Anthony Variations, one of his earliest symphonic works.

City of Oxford choir

DURUFLE requiem & gretchaninov missa festiva

Exeter College Chapel

Saturday, 7.30pm

Tickets: 01865 305305 or ticketsoxford.com

Exeter College Chapel is the perfect venue for these masses, written in Paris during the 20th century. Duruflé’s Requiem was influenced by Fauré and abounds with sublime melodies, while Gretchaninov’s less familiar Missa Festiva reflects French and Russian influences with its harmonic and rhythmic inventiveness. With Steven Grahl (organ), Carris Jones (mezzo), Christopher Jacklin (baritone) and Duncan Aspden.

Music in the Abbey

VIOLIN & Piano recital

St Nicholas Church, Abingdon

Sunday, 3pm

Tickets: 07775 904626 or on the door

Enjoy a relaxing Sunday afternoon with this contrasting programme, which ranges from the typically German romantic feel of Beethoven’s Sonata for Piano and Violin in A Major to the 20th century brilliance of Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne for Violin and Piano and Janacek’s Sonata for Violin and Piano. With John Haworth (violin) and Marcus Andrews (piano).