Concerts
Concert Committee
With the merging of the Parishes of St Mary’s and St Peter’s & All Saints it seemed appropriate for the St Mary’s Concert Committee to invite members of St Peter’s & All Saints to join it, and we were delighted that Peter Siepmann, the Director of Music at St Peter’s & All Saints, and Trevor Davys, who sings in the St Peter’s choir and who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of classical music, agreed to join the Committee. We also welcomed Hilary Olleson who plays in the Orchestra of the Restoration and who works with Imogen Rex in fixing the Orchestra for the concerts. Other members of the Committee are Bill Crampin, representing the sponsors, John Keys (Director of Music at St Mary’s), Martyn Knight (Treasurer), Beth Mitchell (Hon Sec), Tony Mitchell, Ioan Reed-Aspley (publicity), Margaret Wiedemann and Debbie Constable (front of house).
2007 saw three concerts performed by the Orchestra of the Restoration conducted by John Keys. The Spring Concert sponsored by Berrymans and Tony & Beth Mitchell was a magnificent performance of the Verdi Requiem. We were very glad to have Elizabeth Franklin-Kitchen (soprano), back at St Mary’s with Wendy Dawn Thompson (a winner of the Kathleen Ferrier prize), Paul Hopwood and Nigel Cliffe singing the other solo parts.
The Summer concert, sponsored by CPMG Architects, featured an all-American programme which was very well received. Sarah Watts (who had previously played at the 2005 Finzi Festival) was the soloist in the Copland Clarinet Concerto, and Mervyn Cooke played the Gerschwin Piano Concerto in F major. The Choir sang the Bernstein Chichester Psalms and the Programme opened with Barber’s Adagio for Strings.
In October we welcomed back the outstanding young violinist Florian Rago, who played the Paganini Violin Concerto No 1 in D, to great acclaim. The Choirs of St Mary’s sang the Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music, and John Keys was the soloist in the Saint-Saens “organ” symphony No 3. The concert was sponsored by John and Sue Brydon and John Fish Exhibitions Ltd.
We are very grateful for the sponsorship for the concert series from TE Bailey. Without our sponsors we would not be able to present the concerts at St Mary’s. The rationale for the concerts is to bring the general public into St Mary’s to hear fine music in a wonderful building. We also hope that at least some of our audience will want to come to hear the choir sing at our Sunday services and hence join our congregation.
Members of the Orchestra of the Restoration do not charge a fee but from each concert takings a donation is made to the Restoration Appeal in lieu of payment. During the year the Orchestra raised £1200 for the Appeal in this way. We thank all the members of the Orchestra for their fine playing and continued support.
The Concert Committee met three times during the year. Thank you to all members of the Concert Committee for their various contributions which include organising parties after the concerts, feeding the Committee, sending out the mailings and generally helping with whatever else needs to be done. Thank you also to CPMG Architects for its sponsorship of the mailing list which now stands at over 400.
Such was the success of the American Programme in the Summer that the Committee is planning a series of mini-festivals in coming years. In Autumn 2008 we shall celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the death of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and in Autumn 2009 ‘Two funerals and a birthday’ will commemorate anniversaries of the deaths of Handel and Haydn and the birth of Purcell. We also look forward to having Noriko Ogawa to play Tchaikovsky’s 1st Piano Concerto on 7 June 2008.
Finally we are all so grateful for John Keys’ inspirational leadership. Without him these concerts would not take place.
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