The Mid-Somerset Orchestra returns to Strode Theatre in Street on Saturday 1st July for the third symphony performance in its 50th anniversary year.

The concert opens in 19th century France for a selection of music written for the theatre. Georges Bizet's incidental music to Alphonse Daudet's play L'Arlésienne (The Girl from Arles) was written in 1872, and later assembled into two popular orchestral suites.

In 1898, Gabriel Fauré wrote a score to accompany Maurice Maeterlinck's play Pelléas et Mélisande. The orchestra will perform a selection of movements from both works.

After the interval, the orchestra guarantees to grab the audience's attention with the dramatic four-note thunderclap which opens Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. This opening "fate" theme transitions through four movements to a victorious C major finale, in which the orchestra is bolstered by the addition of contrabassoon, trombones and piccolo. An established part of the orchestral landscape since its first performance in 1808, the symphony still sounds revolutionary in the present day.

The orchestra will be conducted by Hitoshi Suzuki, and the concert starts at 7.30pm.

Tickets are available from the Strode Theatre box office online or by calling 01458 442846.