To be kept informed throughout the year why not join the mailing list?
BOS-Friends
Fill in the form with your name and e-mail address, and start receiving the latest information!
To Whet the Appetite
Sat 8 October 2016 -7.30pm
St Paul’s Church, Bedford
Our first concert gives an enticing foretaste of the splendid quality and variety of the music chosen for the season. Here is music stretching from France to Russia, classical 18th century music alongside 20th century works, music fromyoung and older composers, and two intriguing ballet scores from Stravinsky and Milhaud. We are delighted that the celebrated ex-Bedford oboist, Marios Argiros, has accepted our invitation to play Richard Strauss’ beautiful oboe concerto. This was written in response to a polite request from an American oboist for a ‘little piece’, but as the elderly Strauss worked on it, it ‘grew like Topsy’. Haydn’s Symphony No.100, the Military, revels in the vogue of the time for ‘Turkish’ music and instruments – with extra percussion used in two movements.
SoloistMarios Argiros
Conductor Michael Rose
Bedford Sinfonia
StravinskySuite - Pulcinella
Richard Strauss Oboe Concerto
MozartDivertimento in B flat
HaydnSymphony no.100
Adults£12
Children/Students £5
Glorious Romantic Masterpieces
Sat 12 November 2016 - 7.30pm
Bedford Corn Exchange
Good news – Jaroslaw is back! This time he plays Elgar, whose breathtakingly lovely violin concerto was flung into the notice of the world by a 16 year-old Yehudi Menuhin who recorded it with Elgar conducting. Come and experience this concerto with all its different moods and beauty, summed up in a cadenza that shimmers over strummed strings. Then to Tchaikovsky. His 6th symphony starts with a dark low bassoon phrase leading into the intensity of the first movement, on to a gentle movement in 5/4 time trying to be a waltz, through a whirlwind of a march, and exhausts itself in a finale of raw emotion. Can you resist this concert?
Elgar Violin Concerto
Tchaikovsky Symphony no.6 (Pathétique)
Soloist
Jaroslaw Nadrzycki
Conductor
Michael Rose
Bedfordshire
Symphony Orchestra
Balcony / Tier £15
Flat £12
Children/Students £5
The Mozart Concert
Sat 19 November 2016 -7.30pm
Bedford Corn Exchange
The opening choral concert of this season features one of Mozart’s greatest and much loved choral works. The Great C minor Mass clearly shows Mozart’s interest and love for the music of Baroque masters through much use of fugues and counterpoint. But there’s also the influence of Italian opera at which Mozart was so adept. Some of the solo arias could be taken right out of one of his operas. In many ways, the Mass in C minor is a summation of all the influences on Mozart. Come to this concert to hear Mozart at his best!
Conductor Michael Rose
Cello Soloist Neil Martin
Vocal Soloists:
Bethany Seymour,
Kitty Whately,
Joel Williams, Philip Tebb
Bedford Choral Society & Bedford Sinfonia
MozartRegina Coeli K276
KabalevskyCello Concerto No.1
MozartKyrie in D minor K341
MozartMass in C minor K4272 us 60
Balcony / Tier £15
Flat £12
Children/Students £5
Inspired by Literature
Sat 28 January 2017 -7.30pm
Bedford Corn Exchange
Just into 2017, we continue to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, and appropriately open this concert with Walton’s suite of instrumental music he wrote for a stage production of ‘As you like it’. Children’s stories feature, and Ravel’s suite ‘Ma Mere l’Oye’ - ‘Mother Goose’ - supplies imaginative pictures of Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb and The Fairy Garden. Mahler’s 4th Symphony, unlike his other works, seems bathed in warmth and joy - yet there are undertones of tension and even fear. We welcome Alison Langer as our vocal soloist in the final movement, where the apparent innocent playfulness may not be all it seems.
SoloistsAlison Langer (soprano)
Conductor Michael Rose
Bedford Sinfonia
Walton Suite - As you like it
Ravel Suite - Ma mère l’oye
Mahler Symphony no. 4
Balcony / Tier £15
Flat £12
Children/Students £5
Across Central Europe
Sat 25 February 2017 - 7.30pm
Bedford Corn Exchange
Everyone knows ‘William Tell’. Or do they? What about the luscious opening for 5 solo cellos (cellists resort to bribery to be amongst the 5), the violent storm, the peace restored by the cor anglais, assisted by the flute? Finally a fanfare announces the famous tune, and the music reaches its joyous conclusion. In our concert, the overture heralds Beethoven’s final and majestic piano concerto, the Emperor. Is it a concerto for piano with orchestral accompaniment or the reverse? We welcome the gifted young Russian pianist Ilya Kondratiev to Bedford for what will surely be a fine display of musicianship and panache. Dvorák composed his D minor symphony in response to his election as an Honorary Member of the Philharmonic Society of London. He determined to write something ‘capable of stirring the world’, and surely this symphony, wonderfully stark and austere, fits the bill perfectly.
RossiniOverture - William Tell
BeethovenPiano Concerto no.5
(Emperor)
DvorakSymphony no.7
Soloist Ilya Kondratiev
Conductor Michael Rose
Bedfordshire Symphony Orchestra
Balcony / Tier £15
Flat £12
Children/Students £5
String Hors d’Oeuvres
and Wind Main Course
Sat 25 March 2017 -7.30pm
St Peter’s Church, Bedford
A veritable feast is served here. For the ‘Hors d’Oeuvres’ we offer four short works for strings written by famous composers. One of these is a String Symphony written with great skill and invention by the 13 year-old Mendelssohn, and another is a ‘gem of the Romantic era’ for cello and orchestra, composed by the accomplished 19 year-old Richard Strauss. Tonight this is played by the Sinfonia’s principal cellist James Jarvis. After the interval we approach the ‘meat’ of the menu, Mozart’s ‘Gran Partita’, written for 12 wind instruments plus a double bass. Its first performance was organised by Anton Stadler, Mozart’s clarinettist friend, and it was described as ‘A great wind music of a very special kind.’ Sit back and enjoy.
SoloistJames Jarvis
Conductor Michael Rose
Bedford Sinfonia
Mendelssohn String Symphony no.4
Sibelius Romance
R Strauss Romance for Cello and Orchestra
Dvorák Nocturne
Mozart Gran Partita for Wind K361
Adults£12
Children/Students £5
150th Anniversary Concert
Sunday 30 April 2017 -7.30pm
Bedford Corn Exchange
On 30 April 1867 Bedford Choral Society (then Bedford Amateur Musical Society) gave its first public performance. The programme for 30 April 2017 reflects the history of the choir over 150 years, and the whole season is a celebration of English music. Starting with a masterpiece praising music by one of England’s greatest composers, the programme moves on to two commissions. Psalm 150 has been written especially for the occasion by our accompanist and assistant chorus master, Tim Grant-Jones. Paul Edwards’ Te Deum was commissioned by the Society and first performed to great acclaim in 2005. So why include Mendelssohn? Because this piece was performed in the very first concert of the Society in 1867 and therefore forms a clear link to the Society’s past history. Come and share this historic occasion celebrating what we believe to be the 2nd oldest choral society in the country!
Conductor Ian Smith
Bedford Choral Society & Bedford Sinfonia
Tim Grant-Jones Psalm 150
Paul Edwards Te Deum
Mendelssohn Lauda Sion
Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music
Balcony / Tier £15
Flat £12
Children/Students £5
Cross-Border Inspirations
Sat 20 May 2017 - 7.30pm
Bedford Corn Exchange
In 1873, aged 40 and still without a symphony to his name, Brahms wrote his masterly Variations on the St Antony Chorale. Several variations follow the statement of this theme, transforming it in a kaleidoscope of ideas, moods and colours, but always recognisable. Its first performance was an immense success, and this no doubt helped Brahms to put aside his symphonic inhibitions - we may well have St Antony to thank for four glorious symphonies! After Brahms comes Berlioz giving a French view of Romeo and Juliet’s love scene, and Dvorák in the short piece ‘Silent Woods’, painting a dreamy and lyrical picture. The soloist is Felicity Gibson, BSO’s principal cellist. Mendelssohn, already enamoured of the Scottish landscape, fills his symphony with his impressions of Scottish life and character.
Brahms Variations on a Theme of Haydn
Berlioz Scene d’Amour (Romeo and Juliet)
Dvorák Silent Woods for cello and orchestra
Mendelssohn Symphony no.3 (Scottish)
Soloist Felicity Gibson
ConductorMichael Rose
Bedfordshire Symphony
Orchestra
Balcony / Tier £15
Flat £12
Children/Students £5
150th Anniversary Season
Sat 17 June 2017 -7.30pm
Bedford Corn Exchange
Continuing the season’s theme of the celebration of English music this concert features a variety of works. The stunning Five Mystical Songs is a setting of poems by George Herbert. The chorus comes to the fore in the fifth song. The orchestral works in the programme contrast with each other from the serene music of Butterworth to the playful music of Holst. Michael Hurd’s work is a setting of poems by John Clare for Baritone, chorus and orchestra describing the seasons. It has been described as “the most accessible of all great English poems”. The music, written in 1975, compliments the poems in a tuneful and very accessible way. This is a delightfully varied concert for a summer evening. Do come!
