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Children's Ticket vouchers to concerts in November, March and for Messiah are sent out to as many schools as we can in the area. There are also some vouchers available from Windblowers on Derby Road in Nottingham, if we have missed your school, or you need more than you have been sent.

Saturday 31th May 2008 7:30pm Southwell Minster VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Seranade to Music ELGAR Seranade for Strings FINZI In Terra Pax BRITTEN St. Nicolas Colette Boushell Soprano Angelica Voje Mezzo soprano Christopher Steele Tenor Vojtech Safarik Bass Choristers from Southwell Minster Trinity School Choir Colette Boushell, Angelica Voje and Vojtech Safarik are all supported by the Josephine Baker Trust. The picturesque Southwell Minster will be a beautiful setting for some fascinating pieces of English music. Elgar’s Serenade for Strings was one of the first pieces he published. Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music was written for eight specific soloists to sing, in a concert given as a tribute to Henry Wood, at the fiftieth anniversary of his first concert. Finzi's In Terra Pax is usually associated with Christmas, but the sublime surroundings of Southwell Minster will be an ideal setting for this beautiful work. Britten’s dramatic St Nicolas was written for yet another celebration - the centenary of Lancing College in Sussex. Britten was fascinated by the variety of scale patterns used in folk music from different places. In St Nicolas he gives the various sections, which follow the different stages of St Nicolas' life, distinct moods by basing the themes on different scale patterns. Tickets for this concert will be available from early 2008.

Outline of concerts from Autumn 2008 onwards Saturday 8th November 2008 7:30pm Royal Concert Hall Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Saturday 6th December 2008 7:00pm Royal Concert Hall Handel Messiah Saturday 20th & Monday 22nd December 2008 7:00pm Royal Concert Hall Family Carol Concerts Saturday 28th March 2009 7:30pm Royal Concert Hall Brahms Song of Destiny Brahms German Requiem Beethoven Overture Leonora Saturday 23rd May 2009 7:30pm Southwell Minster Walton Coronation Te Deum Bruckner Motets Gabrielli Jubilate Deo Rutter Te Deum Scheidt In Dulci Jubilo Wood Hail Gladening Light Taverner Song for Athene

Saturday 10th November 2007 7:30pm Royal Concert Hall KARL JENKINS The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace RACHMANINOV The Bells Elena Ferrari Soprano Tyrone Landau Tenor Gavin Carr Baritone ORCHESTRA DA CAMERA NOTTINGHAM HARMONIC SOCIETY Conductor - Murray Stewart Karl Jenkins unmistakable blend of western classical and worldwide ethnic music has led to his music becoming justifiably popular. It is frequently used in films and advertisements as well as on the concert platform. The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace is a powerful and poignant portrayal of the causes and consequences of war. It was commissioned by the British Armories and is dedicated to the victims of the Kosovo conflict. Using the basis of a Requiem Mass he also set both secular and sacred texts, inspired by a 15th-century French poem L'Homme Arme. Rachmaninov’s The Bells is less well known. Written early in Rachmaninov’s career it was his own favourite work. It was inspired by a poem of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe. Rachmaninov, wrote this as a choral symphony, each movement following a different verse of the poem and following a different aspect of human experience and emotion, as indicated by the use of different bells: Sleigh Bells, Wedding Bells, Alarm Bells and Funeral Bells. This is wonderfully Russian, emotional music, written well before the revolution, when Russia was still enthralled by the Ballet, Opera and the music of Tchaikovsky, who was inevitably one of the great influences on Rachmaninov’s work.

Saturday 1st December 2007 7:00pm Royal Concert Hall HANDEL Messiah Charlotte Ellett Soprano Anna Wall Mezzo soprano Philip Sheffield Tenor Andrew Slater Bass ORCHESTRA DA CAMERA Conductor - Murray Stewart NOTTINGHAM HARMONIC SOCIETY This concert comes at the start of Advent, when we are all finally becoming aware that it really isn’t long until Christmas, even though the shops have been anticipating it for months. Come and have an evening to escape from the bustle and let Handel’s glorious music wash over you and renew you. Handel’s inspired Messiah, written in only 21 days, also looks forward to Christmas, telling the story of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection, through prophetic, narrative and explanatory extracts from the Bible. Although Messiah is the work by which most people in the world know Handel, it is almost a misfit in his output. He was not generally a religious composer and was not employed as a church musician, but rather wrote operas and music for royal occasions. His oratorios appear to be simply operas with religious themes. At the time they were written in England, they were not allowed to be staged nor acted. They could only be performed in a church, not in a theatre. Handel’s operatic techniques are apparent in Messiah. The choir plays parts ranging from a vituperative mob hurling insults round the Cross to a choir of Angels singing of Jesus’ birth and praising Him in Heaven. Many of the soloists’ arias are familiar and well-loved, but they make even more impact in the context of the whole work. If you have never heard the whole of Messiah before, or have only heard versions which are heavily cut and there is no sense of continuity, come and be prepared for a totally different, thrilling, emotional experience!

Wednesday 19th December 2007 7:00pm Saturday 22nd December 2007 7:00pm Royal Concert Hall FAMILY CAROL CONCERTS NOTTINGHAM HARMONIC SOCIETY Conductor - Murray Stewart THORESBY COLLIERY BAND These ever-popular family concerts come in the often frenetically busy, but expectant in-between time after the end of school term just before Christmas. It is a good time to make space to relax and enjoy enthralling Christmas music in a warm, friendly atmosphere. The Thoresby Colliery Band is one of the most exciting brass bands in Europe, and regularly wins countless accolades for its inspirational playing. Even if you think you don’t like brass bands, this one will convert you. Over the years they have played pieces ranging from Frosty the Snowman to Rossini’s William Tell Overture , Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and Wagner’s Procession to the Minster. If you get seats close enough to watch their percussion section, it is an amazing sight and sound. When not joining forces with the band, or leading the audience in some of the familiar Christmas Carols, the choir provides some quieter interludes with some beautiful, though perhaps less familiar, carol settings. There is always an opportunity for all the children to come down to the stage to sing carols. Some of them, if they are the first to answer a question, or sing really well, will get the chance to conduct the band or choir. You are guaranteed to go home from this concert with a warm glow inside and a feeling of the fun of Christmas

Saturday 15th March 2008 7:30pm Royal Concert Hall BACH St John Passion Quentin Hayes Christus Philip Salmon Evangelist Nicki Kennedy Soprano Katherine Allen Mezzo soprano Daniel Auchincloss Tenor Christopher Foster Baritone ORCHESTRA DA CAMERA Conductor - Murray Stewart NOTTINGHAM HARMONIC SOCIETY Bach wrote his Passion settings for use in the Good Friday services and meditations. As a Lutheran, he was trying to get the ordinary people to understand, in their own language, something of the drama and significance of the events they were celebrating. The use of thier local language in services, rather than Latin, was something that had been fought over in Germany and was still regarded as a treasured right. The music was thus written, not for operatic show, but to support and dramatise the accounts of the Last Supper and Good Friday, and to give space for contemplation. The music is still as vibrant and powerful now as it was when it was first written. The St John Passion was written a few years before the St Matthew Passion, and was the first Passion which Bach wrote at St Thomas Leipzig. He modified it a couple of times on subsequent Good Fridays, but the final version, performed some time in the 1740s was very close to the original in its form.

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