Haslemere Musical Society

16/05/2026

Tonight, 7.30pm at Haslemere Hall: Haslemere Symphony Orchestra's final conduct of our 2025-26 season, conducted by James Ross, with chorus director Catherine Olver.

Alongside music by Grainger, Coates, Elgar, George Richford and Clive Osgood, Composer, we perform Vaughan Williams's Richard II Concert Fantasy, recently recorded by James Ross with Kent Sinfonia for Albion Records RVW.

In 1944 the BBC Drama Department planned a radio production of Richard II and commissioned incidental music from Vaughan Williams. He thought it would run to a quarter of an hour, suggesting a £50 fee to Norman Peterkin of Oxford University Press, who successfully bid it up to £65. Sadly, the play was postponed, then abandoned – the subject matter perhaps was considered inappropriate for that stage of the war. The music forgotten, though the fee seems to have been paid.

Vaughan Williams did not return to his earlier 1913 Richard II music (which The Times of 22 April 1913 described as ‘thoroughly agreeable’ despite rather drowning the spoken words in one scene) but wrote fresh music, perhaps influenced by having become a film music composer in recent years. Inevitably, Vaughan Williams’s 34 original cues are somewhat disjointed when performed on their own, so it occurred to composer Nathaniel Lew, who edited and published them, that if combined these passages into a continuous fabric, the result would constitute a worthwhile addition to the composer’s canon. He suggested the idea to the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust (now the Vaughan Williams Foundation), which enthusiastically assented.

Nathaniel Lew writes: ‘The present Concert Fantasy, then, is the result. It begins with the first bars of the radio score and ends with the last, and every note herein derives from that source. However, in order to stitch together the cues, each complete unto itself, I had to transpose material, adjust orchestrations, and in one instance repeat a measure to create a smooth transition. Furthermore, although I included as much as was practical, I could not incorporate every bar. I have omitted cues that were not fully orchestral, such as the numerous diegetic fanfares (given the martial milieu of the play) and the melancholy viola solo that accompanies Richard in prison. With more regret, I found no place for the brief minor-mode variant of the “John of Gaunt” theme that attends his death.

‘As regards form, I did not attempt to follow the narrative of the play, but rather grouped the thematic material into a set of loose scenes. The Concert Fantasy begins by alternating brighter variants of Richard’s themes with John of Gaunt’s visionary music and several foreboding passages. After Bolingbroke’s grinding dissonances and a noble brass transformation of Richard’s melody, we turn to the bleak tableau of “The Wilds of Gloucestershire”. A transition leads into the Queen’s music, followed by Richard’s passionate farewell to her. A set of grim fanfares announce his doom, after which I have grouped the drooping mournful variants of Richard’s once cheerful tune, including the triple-metre “dead march”, and finally the tragic final statements of his subsidiary motive which opened the score.’

Here is Albion Records RVW recording of Richard II with James Ross and Kent Sinfonia: https://youtu.be/_ZXT1kMde8I

Notes above are from Albion Records’s ‘Royal Throne of Kings: Vaughan Williams and Shakespeare’ album, with Kent Sinfonia conducted by James Ross. CDs (£10) are available for purchase in the interval and at the end of tonight’s concerts.
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Vaughan Williams Society

Provided to YouTube by IIP-DDSRichard II Concert Fantasy · James Ross · Kent Sinfonia · Ralph Vaughan WilliamsRalph Vaughan Williams: Royal Throne of Kings℗ ...

15/05/2026

Saturday night's 7.30pm concert at Haslemere Hall with Haslemere Symphony Orchestra and Chorus finishes with Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)'s The Black Knight, Op. 25.

The Black Knight was Elgar’s first of several large choral works with orchestra written before he became the famous composer of the Enigma Variations (1899). Elgar wrote this four-movement cantata, which he described as a ‘symphony for chorus and orchestra’, between 1889 and 1893, for performance at the Worcester Festival, followed in 1894 in Hereford and Walsall, and 1895 in Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

Elgar’s mother Anne passed him a love for the poetry of Henry Wordsworth Longfellow (1807-82), best known for The Song of Hiawatha. Longfellow’s 1839 novel Hyperion, inspired by his European travels, included a loose translation of Ludwig Uhland’s ballad Der Schwarze Ritter, itself derived from an existing German story about the second marriage in 1285 of Scottish King Alexander III. In 1899, Elgar sent Hans Richter, first conductor of the Enigma Variations, a copy of Hyperion, describing it as ‘the little book ... from which I, as a child, received my first idea of the great German nations’. Fittingly, early stages of The Black Knight were written on holiday with friends in Germany during summer 1889, which included hearing several Wagner music dramas at Bayreuth.

Elgar wrote that, instead of a typical cantata with multiple episodes, ‘I intended the work to be a sort of symphony in four divisions founded on the poem, different in structure to anything done before, where “the picture” is fixable for a little time the words are repeated - in dramatic parts the words “go on”: it’s not a proper cantata as such: is too important’.

Scene One describes a medieval jousting tournament at Pentecost, the action moved from the Scotland of Uhland’s original to ‘ancient Hofburg’s walls’ by Longfellow, in music reminiscent of the grandeur of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The king’s son defeats all opponents until the mysterious ‘Black Knight’ challenges him; in Scene Two, under a darkening sky, the unknown knight wins; in Scene Three, during the subsequent banquet, asks the king for his daughter’s hand in marriage, while the chorus demands to know the knight’s name. The Black Knight dances with the daughter with a lightness of touch found in French ballet music by Delibes or Gounod. Events turn sinister when the flowers in the princess’s hair start dying. The knight then offers ‘healing’ wine to the king’s two children: they collapse and die, accompanied softly by the orchestra. The old king, feeling he has nothing for which to live, begs the knight to kill him, but the knight refuses.

Like Elgar’s other 1890s choral works, such as King Olaf, Caractacus and The Banner of St George, The Black Knight was eclipsed by The Dream of Gerontius and later, more artistically sophisticated scores. By comparison, the earlier works can appear conventional: however, for their time, they took English choral music to new heights. Critically, The Black Knight was the work that convinced August Jaeger at the publisher Novello’s to take on Elgar, writing: ‘I am forever pushing … since I played through your fine Black Knight, Mr Elgar’s claim to attention … I am conceited enough to think I can recognise a good thing and see genius in musicians who are not yet dead, or even not yet well known.’ The Black Knight is full of music that heralds his famous later works, evoking grandeur without pomposity, lightness and tenderness with equal skill, colourful orchestration and vivid storytelling.

Here is the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Richard Hickox:

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM GCVO (2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and inte...

15/05/2026

Haslemere Symphony Orchestra and Chorus's concert tomorrow, Saturday, 7.30pm at Haslemere Hall, includes Eric Coates' delightful three-movement 'London Suite'.

Coates was a highly successful British composer of twentieth century light music, to which conductor Sir Charles Groves said ‘a man would have to have a wooden heart not to respond’. Coates’ By the Sleepy Lagoon, which still opens BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, and The Dam Busters March for the 1955 film are the most famous examples of his numerous finely crafted tuneful works. Ironically, that memorable march, so associated with the Royal Air Force, had already been composed for concert use without reference to its eventual title or the film to which it was attached. On receiving the commission, Coates commented: ‘I think I finished it yesterday’.

The London Suite, subtitled London Every Day, was written in 1933. It is one of several works Coates, who lived almost above Baker Street underground station, wrote inspired by the UK’s capital city, including London Calling, London Bridge, Holborn and a ‘sequel’ called London Again.

The Suite’s first movement, 'Covent Garden', evokes the hustle and bustle of central London in a rapid tarantella. 'Westminster', the second movement is a nocturne – we hear London asleep, in music reminiscent of the quiet moments of Elgar’s Cockaigne Overture. Near the end, the chimes of Big Ben are heard gently. ‘Knightsbridge', a quick march that brings us back to the busy side of London life, was a regular BBC radio signature tune from the 1930s to ‘60s, helping secure the work’s popularity.

Here is the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Groves in

I. Tarantelle : Covent Garden 0:00II. Meditation : Westminster 4:5...

14/05/2026

Next concert: Saturday 16 May, 7.30pm at Haslemere Hall, starting with Percy Grainger's Country Gardens:

Provided to YouTube by Universal Music GroupGrainger: Country Gardens · Eastman-Rochester "Pops" Orchestra · Frederick FennellGrainger: Country Gardens &c/Co...

12/05/2026

With Saturday's concert approaching, there is still time to book you ticket and come along to this lovely evening of music

11/05/2026

Why not come along and play in Haslemere Symphony orchestra at our summer sessions in June, 3 open sessions, friendly and with tea and cake in the break :)

17/04/2026

Our next concert showcases a new work from renowned local composer Clive Osgood, ‘Lengthening Days’ - Osgood explains the song cycle: ‘Lengthening Days’, for countertenor and string quartet, explores the profound shift from winter’s austerity to the vibrant renewal of the medieval seasonal calendar. In the Middle Ages, the arrival of spring and summer was not merely a change in weather, but a spiritual and physical rebirth—a theme woven through these four distinct musical settings.
You’re in for a treat on 23 May! Tickets available via our bio! 7:30pm, St Christopher’s, Haslemere

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23/03/2026

For our final concert of the season, Haslemere Musical Society Chorus and Orchestra have lots of musical treats in store. With themes of English Folk Songs, folklore and chivalry, the programme includes Percy Grainger's arrangement of the English folk song 'Country Gardens', Eric Coates' London Suite, and Elgar's 'The Black Knight' cantata for orchestra and chorus. Not to mention our choral accompanist Clive Osgood, Composer's arrangement of the Folk Song 'I heard the voice of Jesus say'. You can book your tickets now at Haslemere Hall.

06/03/2026

Haslemere Symphony Orchestra and Chorus's concert on Saturday night at Haslemere Hall, 7.30pm, features British composer John Ireland's Prelude for Orchestra: The Forgotten Rite: Prelude for Orchestra.

Ireland (1913-62) was born in Cheshire and studied at the Royal College of Music in London, including composition with Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. The Forgotten Rite was his first mature orchestral work, composed in 1913. Its title was inspired by Ireland’s frequent travels to Jersey, with its numerous ancient pagan sites associated with rituals, magic and witchcraft, which were being excavated by archaeologists at the time. The work also Ireland’s reading of Welsh author Arthur Machen’s supernatural fantasies The House of Souls and The Hill of Dreams, although like in comparable works by Bax, Debussy and Ravel, it is perceived better perhaps as an impressionistic depiction of Pan, the goat-God, rather than any specific place or scene.

The music begins with an ambiguous, hovering chord sequence marked ‘lento e mistico’ (‘slow and mystic’). The flute motif is an obvious panpipe reference, transferred to the trumpet for the revelation of Pan’s presence. This leads to a central pastoral idyll with an expansive oboe solo. For the departure of Pan, Ireland creates subtle changes. The flute motif is transferred to the piccolo; the bright trumpet music and full orchestra sound world signifies Pan’s arrival, while his disappearance is evoked by an other-worldly celesta motif over sustained string chords.

Here is the SInfonia of London conducted by John WIlson: https://youtu.be/8SaLxb1b09U
Concert: Arensky, Tchaikovsky, Catherine Olver, Kerensa Briggs, John Ireland and John Rutter / Haslemere Musical Society

Provided to YouTube by Naxos Digital ServicesThe Forgotten Rite · Sinfonia of London · John Wilson · John IrelandJohn Ireland: Orchestral Works℗ 2022 Chandos...

06/03/2026

Saturday's Haslemere Symphony Orchestra and Chorus concert at Haslemere Hall, 7.30pm, begins with Anton Arensky's Otče Naš (Our Father), Op. 40 No. 3, before moving directly to Tchaikovsky - Composer's Symphony No. 5.

Arensky (1861-1906) was a fine composer of orchestral, chamber, and vocal music, overshadowed now by his slightly older contemporaries Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin and Mussorgsky. He started his career teaching at the Moscow Conservatoire and from 1888 was also director of the Russian Choral Society. Mikhail Bukinik, a fellow student together with Rachmaninov, described Arensky as ‘mobile, nervous, with a wry smile on his clever, half Tartar face, always joking or snarling; all feared his laughter and adored his talent’; Tolstoy wrote that ‘among the new composers, he is the best; he is simple and melodious’. Arensky died of tuberculosis aged only 44, in what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland, having become ‘a strange man, drunken, debauched, flighty and unpredictably irascible, unreliable in meeting commitments or commissions… his life had run a dissipated course between wine and card-playing’.

From 1895 to 1901 he directed the Russian Imperial Choir in St Petersburg, writing fine Orthodox liturgical works including this Old Church Slavonic setting of the ‘Our Father’ prayer, part of a set of four sacred choruses from the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom composed in 1897.

Final tickets available from Haslemere Hall box office: https://www.haslemerehall.co.uk/sales/genres/music/haslemere-musical-society---ma-8
Concert: Arensky, Tchaikovsky, Catherine Olver, Kerensa Briggs, John Ireland and John Rutter