For our summer concert this year we have tried to achieve three objectives which on the face of it might not seem easy to reconcile: to offer a light-hearted but varied programme with high entertainment value, to avoid routine and run-of-the-mill repertoire while nonetheless choosing works of quality, and to support British composers (preferably including some living ones).
Accordingly we have chosen the following works:

Samson and the Gates of Gaza - by Elizabeth Maconchy

Samson and the Gates of Gaza was composed in 1957 for the choir and orchestra of King Edward VI School, Chelmsford and is a setting (lasting about 11 minutes) of a "jazz poem" written in 1917 by the American poet Nicholas Vachel Lindsay. The text describes in a humorous, "bluesey" style (aptly mirrored in the music) how Samson, driven out of the house by his wife because he would not drink, stole and destroyed the gates of Gaza but then fell under the spell of the "harlot" Delilah, with tragic results. In this performance the orchestral score is replaced by the composer's own arrangement for piano.

Nonsense - by Richard Rodney Bennett

Nonsense is a humorous setting for chorus and piano duet of seven poems from Mervyn Peake's Book of Nonsense. It was written in 1979 but later revised, and was first performed at the Chester Summer Music Festival in 1984 by the National Youth Choir of Great Britain under Michael Brewer.

1. Of Pygmies, Palms and Pirates
2. Aunts and Uncles
3. Lean Sideways on the Wind
4. O Here It Is! And there It Is!
5. How Fly the Birds of Heaven?
6. The Men in Bowler Hats
7. The Dwarf of Battersea

From the Bavarian Highlands Op 27 - by Sir Edward Elgar

This work was written during the last years of the previous century when Elgar and his wife Alice spent their summer holiday in Bavaria. It was originally scored for mixed chorus with piano accompaniment and first performed by the Worcester Festival Choral Society under Elgar's direction on 21st April 1896.

The six songs listed below were dedicated to the proprietors of the pension in Garmisch where the Elgars stayed and each has a particular association with the Garmish area.

1. The Dance
2. False Love
3. Lullaby
4. Aspiration
5. On the Alm
6. The Marksmen

Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo - by Michael Flanders and Joseph Horowitz

The music of Joseph Horowitz shares with that of Maconchy and Bennett the qualities of versatility and ability to communicate across a range of styles. Although admired for his more serious works (particularly his string quartets, ballets and operas), he is best known for the music in a lighter vein (eg the parody Horrortorio).

In 1973 he collaborated with Michael Flanders, the lyricist half of the famous "Flanders and Swann" partnership, to produce this uproarious and witty "Cantata in popular style", for chorus, male lead singer (or singers) and piano accompaniment (with optional bass and jazz drums). The work tells the story of Noah and the Flood and is in ten movements.

Tickets Available from: Hammicks Bookshop, Woking; Surrey Music Store, Horsell; Brittens Music, West Byfleet. H.G. Wells Box Office.
Telephone enquiries: 01483 767852 or 01483 829366

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Last updated 18 May 1999