Brahms Academic Festival Overture Op. 80 was one of a pair of contrasting concert overtures — the other being the Tragic Overture, Op. 81, written to balance it as its pair.

Brahms composed the Academic Festival Overture during the summer of 1880 as a musical "thank you" to the University of Breslau, which had awarded him an honorary doctorate the previous year. Initially, Brahms had contented himself with sending a simple handwritten note of acknowledgment to the University, since he loathed the public fanfare of celebrity. However, the conductor Bernard Scholz, who had nominated him for the degree, convinced him that protocol required him to make a grander gesture of gratitude. The University expected nothing less than a musical offering from the composer. "Compose a fine symphony for us!" he wrote to Brahms. "But well orchestrated, old boy, not too uniformly thick!" The result – a 10 minute overture, but calling for one of the largest ensembles for any of his compositions: piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets (both doubling on B-flat and C clarinets), two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns (two in C and two in E), three C trumpets, three trombones, one tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, and strings!

The composer himself conducted the premiere at a special convocation held by the University on January 4, 1881. Due to its easily-grasped structure, its lyrical warmth, as well as its excitement and humor, the work has remained a staple of today's concert-hall repertoire.

Joubert An English Requiem(Festival Commission)

As composer in residence for the 2010 Three Choirs Festival, Joubert was commissioned to write this piece for soprano, baritone, chorus & large orchestra (triple woodwind, standard modern brass, percussion, harp, organ & strings). Completed on New Year’s Eve 2008, it takes its inspiration from Brahms German Requiem with texts freely chosen from the Old & New Testaments and with similar orchestral forces utilized. The work is in 6 movements and lasts 45 minutes. It is in an approachable harmonic idiom in recognizable keys, but is bitter or gentle depending on the text and includes a special role for the boys & men of the Cathedral choirs.

Beethoven Symphony No 5 Op. 67, was written between 1804 and 1808. One of the most popular, well-known and most often played of his symphonies, it was first performed in Vienna's Theater an der Wien in 1808 and achieved its prodigious reputation soon afterwards.

E.T.A. Hoffmann described the symphony as "one of the most important works of the time". It begins by stating a distinctive four-note "short-short-short-long" motif twice: The symphony, and the four-note opening motif in particular, are well known worldwide, with the motif appearing frequently in popular culture, from disco to rock and roll, to appearances in film and television. During World War II, the BBC used the four-note motif to introduce its radio news broadcasts because its rhythm is the Morse code letter "V" (• • • —, "victory").