The British Sinfonietta appeared at the 2026 Cheltenham Music Festival on Saturday 4 July for a major concert in the spectacular surroundings of Tewkesbury Abbey.
Conducted by Adrian Partington, the orchestra joined the South Cotswold Big Sing Group and soloists Lee Bissett, Claudia Huckle, Elgan Llŷr Thomas and Aidan Smith for a programme culminating in Mahler’s Das klagende Lied.
The concert opened with Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture, followed by Bruckner’s Te Deum, before the combined forces tackled Mahler’s ambitious early cantata.
The performance formed part of the Cheltenham Music Festival’s 80th anniversary programme, which brought together leading orchestras, ensembles and artists for performances across Cheltenham and the surrounding area.
Reviewing the concert for Seen and Heard International, John Quinn praised the performance as “vivid, dramatic and memorable”, highlighting the British Sinfonietta and Adrian Partington’s handling of Mahler’s extraordinarily imaginative orchestration.
The Cheltenham appearance was one of several festival and large-scale choral engagements for the British Sinfonietta during 2026, in a season that has taken the orchestra to concert halls and cathedrals across England and Wales.