As part of the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of John Milton's birth, spearheaded by Christ's College, and in partnership with the Suffolk Villages Festival, the Cambridge Early Music Concert Series 2008 present this performance of a Handel masterpiece, sometimes known as "Merriment, Melancholy and Moderation". Milton's "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso" provide the text of the first two sections of this secular oratorio, while Handel's regular librettist Charles Jennens completed the set with "Il Moderato". Extolling the pleasures of the English countryside, this rarely-performed work contains some of Handel's most beautiful and memorable music.
There will be a pre-concert talk by Dr Jessica Martin, Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge, at 5.00pm in Trinity College Chapel. Admission to the talk is free.

Fairy tales, adventure novels, Hollywood movies - stories in their many guises are a part of the fabric of our cultural identity, exerting a formative influence on our thinking and our values. In this programme we hear sacred and secular stories by Carissimi, Strozzi, Merula, d'India and others. From very different corners of Europe, the baroque harpist Marie Bournisien (France) and the two sopranos Kristine Jaunalksne (Latvia) and Ulrike Hofbauer (Germany) bring a highly unusual approach to this entrancing music.

This is everyone's party!

On the 21st July the Cologne New Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra will perform a number of popular pieces including:

Vivaldi - The Four Seasons - "Summer"

Mozart - Concerto for Horn and Orchestra in E Flat Major KV 447

Mendelssohn - Music to "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Purcell - "Pavane et Chaconne" for String Orchestra

Pachelbel - "Canon" for 3 Violins and basso continuo

Cantate is one of the UK's leading young choirs. It exists to encourage young people to sing a wide choral repertoire to the highest professional standards, and is renowned for exciting, dynamic performances and refined music-making. It draws its membership of over 180 young singers from more than 70 schools in the Cambridge, Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire area. Cantate consists of three main choirs: the Training Choir for high voices from 8 years old; the Youth Choir of mixed voices from 13 to 16 years old; and the Senior Choir for singers from 15 to 19. In addition, there is a Chamber Choir of alumni, and a parents' and friends' choir - Amici Cantate. The choirs perform separately and together, both in their home area as well as in London, nationally and internationally. During the last year, Cantate has appeared on BBC's Songs of Praise three times. In November 2006, the Senior and Youth Choirs performed the world premiere in Cambridge of Bob Chilcott's Missa Cantate, and appeared at the Royal Albert Hall in the Schools Prom. In December, their London engagements included the Royal British Legion Christmas Celebration at Freemasons' Hall and Family Carols in St Paul's Cathedral. The Youth Choir toured Tuscany and Umbria in May 2007, and the Senior Choir performed 4 concerts to packed audiences around Lake Garda in July.

Programme details

Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune

John Hopkins: Floating World

W. A. Mozart: Concerto for Flute and Harp

Frank Bridge: Summer

The K. 239 Chamber Orchestra is a semi-professional chamber orchestra based in Cambridge, UK. It was founded in spring 1989 by Nicholas Toller, taking its name from the catalogue number of Mozart's Serenata Notturna, the work which began its inaugural concert. Since then, the orchestra has presented 3 concerts each year, performing in several Cambridge venues (most frequently the University Concert Hall at West Road and Emmanuel United Reformed Church) and has given a great many conducting and solo performing opportunities to local musicians. The orchestra was disbanded in 2004 after the 15th Anniversary Concert but was re-formed in 2007 in memory of Nick Toller. A special trait of the orchestra is the repertoire: in addition to promoting less well-known or neglected works, each concert usually includes at least one work by Mozart and sometimes features works (including premières) by composers living in the city.

The Players

The orchestra consists of players from a very wide range of professional backgrounds. Some of our players are, or have been, professional performers, and several are semi-professional players and teachers of their instrument. For many of the others, orchestral playing is an enjoyable diversion from the stresses of their working day in medicine, science or commerce, etc.

Each member of the orchestra, including the soloists and conductors, contributes their time and expertise on a purely voluntary basis, and any regular member who wishes to do so, may be given the chance to conduct or to feature as a soloist.

Cantate is one of the UK's leading young choirs. It exists to encourage young people to sing a wide choral repertoire to the highest professional standards, and is renowned for exciting, dynamic performances and refined music-making.

It draws its membership of over 180 young singers from more than 70 schools in the Cambridge, Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire area. Cantate consists of three main choirs: the Training Choir for high voices from 8 years old; the Youth Choir of mixed voices from 13 to 16 years old; and the Senior Choir for singers from 15 to 19. In addition, there is a Chamber Choir of alumni, and a parents' and friends' choir - Amici Cantate. The choirs perform separately and together, both in their home area as well as in London, nationally and internationally.

During the last year, Cantate has appeared on BBC's Songs of Praise three times. In November 2006, the Senior and Youth Choirs performed the world premiere in Cambridge of Bob Chilcott's Missa Cantate, and appeared at the Royal Albert Hall in the Schools Prom. In December, their London engagements included the Royal British Legion Christmas Celebration at Freemasons' Hall and Family Carols in St Paul's Cathedral. The Youth Choir toured Tuscany and Umbria in May 2007, and the Senior Choir performed 4 concerts to packed audiences around Lake Garda in July.

Booking Info:
Ticket Secretary: 01376 331 160
Email: tickets@cantate.co.uk 

Portrait Anthony Randall
an original composition for 7 horns & tuba
solo horn Donald Clist
"Horn player, conductor, and composer Anthony Randall was a colleague and close friend of Ifor James for more than 40 years. Dedicated to his memory, the composer "tried to capture Ifor's playing, his wicked sense of humour, his titanic struggle against illness and finally, his enduring spirit." I was present at the first performance of this fascinating piece, conducted by the composer, in October 2005 and was moved to tears. The essence of Ifor's indomitable spirit is wonderfully captured in its chameleon-like shifts of colour and texture, its various moods encompassing an elegiac aria for the 1st horn, followed by an athletic optimism and defiance, finishing in a resigned but consolatory mood. The ensemble writing, although challenging, is tonally rewarding in all the parts. For practical purposes the Tuba part can be replaced by an 8th horn but I am sure that wherever possible the composer's original scoring is preferable." Anthony Halstead, The Horn Player, December 2007

BAND OF OBOES  www.band-of-oboes.com

A remarkable, zany ensemble of reeds led by principle oboe, arranger and composer Rob Rogers

Der Freischütz Suite Weber

We are proud to give the first UK performance of this suite, brilliantly arranged by Berlin Philharmonic horn player Klaus Waldendorf for 8 horns and released on their recent CD "Opera"

Cambridge Philharmonic Society

Timothy Redmond: Conductor, Mark Simpson: Clarinet

Programme details
Wagner - Tristan and Isolde: Prelude

Magnus Lindberg - Clarinet Concerto

Mahler - Symphony No 1

"This was more than a performance; more than an interpretation, even ... this was simply great music-making by any standard"
So wrote music critic James Day after a performance of Mahler's Ninth symphony by the Cambridge Philharmonic Society in November 2002. The Cambridge Philharmonic Society: a group of nearly 200 members who play and sing music for the sheer love and art of it, aiming, always, at the highest possible standards of performance.

The Cambridge Philharmonic Society comprises a thriving choir and orchestra. Members come from all walks of life. The singers and players represent such diverse occupations as doctors and nurses, scientists and academics, writers and adminstrators, refrigeration engineers and engravers, teachers and students. They play up to eight concerts a year concentrating largely on the romantic repertoire. But they have also championed new works such as John Dankworth's Clarinet Concerto and George Lloyd's Symphonic Mass. They play Bach and Haydn too. Apart from venues in and around Cambridge they have given concerts in Ely, Peterborough and Norwich. In 2001 they travelled to Amersfoort in Holland for a performance of Haydn's Creation with the Amersfoort Choral Society, and in January 2004 they joined forces with the Brussels Choral Society for an all-Berlioz concert in Belgium.

Programme details

Polovtsian Dances: Alexander Borodin

Variations for Two Pianos Op 19 - Geoffrey Winters

Flight of the Bumble Bee - N. Rimsky-Korsakoff

Introduction and Allegro - Maurice Ravel

Variations on a Theme by Paganini - Witold Lutoslawski

INTERVAL

Le Matin Op 71, No. 2 - Cecile Chaminade

Three Dances from the Nutcracker Suite - Tchaikovsky arr. Cann

Suite No. 2 for 2 pianos - Sergei Rachmaninoff