In Windsor Forestand other English choral classics

Vaughan Williams: In Windsor Forest and Five Mystical Songs Dyson: In Honour of the City • Finzi: Eclogue for piano & strings

Andover Choral SocietySt Mary’s Church, Andover • Saturday 6 May, 7.30pm

Tickets £12, available from choir members and from The Lights box office on 01264 368368andoverchoralsociety.org.uk

Andover Choral Society presents an evocative programme of English choral music in collaboration with the Westminster Chamber Orchestra.

Vaughan Williams’ In Windsor Forest, a lively cantata based on the composer’s Shakespearean opera Sir John in Love, leads the bill. Five contrastings scenes are presented, including a rousing drinking song and a wonderfully ethereal Wedding Chorus.

Five Mystical Songs is perhaps the best-known of all Vaughan Williams’ choral music. These striking settings of poems by George Herbert culminate in the spirited antiphon “Let All The World in Ev’ry Corner Sing”.

The Yorkshire-born composer George Dyson is perhaps a less familiar name - educated at the Royal College of Music under Charles Stanford, he taught at a number of prestigious colleges before becoming Director of the RCM in 1937. In Honour of the City was composed in 1928, while he was head of music at Winchester College - though the city its title refers to is London!

Finzi’s delicately romantic Eclogue for piano and strings completes the programme, performed by Andover Choral Society’s rehearsal pianist, Julie Aherne.

The Hampshire market town of Andover has a long history of choral singing. The original Andover Choral Society was formed in 1866 to perform Handel’s Messiah accompanied by piano and harmonium. Local newspaper archives show details of a concert in 1887 at which Haydn’s Creation was performed. In the late 1920’s Sir Adrian Boult conducted 260 voices in the local Drill Hall and a music festival was set up in 1927, supported by both Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Malcolm Sargeant.

The present Andover Choral Society was inaugurated in 1971 to promote choral singing for all. At least two concerts a year are presented in St Mary’s Church, Andover, at which members are joined by singers and instrumentalists of the highest calibre. Rehearsals are held on Wednesday evenings in Bridge Street Methodist Church, Andover, and the society is always happy to welcome new members.

The Westminster Chamber Orchestra are a passionate group of players with the skill and experience to deliver high-energy and emotional performances. Their concerts combine well-known works with lesser-known but equally beautiful pieces, opening the door to new worlds of music. Orchestra members have worked with an impressive array of ensembles including BBC Concert Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Palau de les Arts, and the London Mozart Players.