Sunday 3rd September 6pm

Choral Evensong with the Choir of the City Church

Directed by Adrian Boynton, led by Revd Tim Norwood.

The beautiful service of Evensong from the Book of Common Prayer with fine musical settings from four centuries.

All welcome. Retiring collection.

Saturday 9th September 12 noon

Michael Wigram (cello) Lynn Arnold (piano)

BEETHOVEN:Sonata in G minor for Cello & Piano, Op 5 No 2

BLOCH:Meditation Hebraique

RACHMANINOV:Sonata in G minor for Cello & Piano, Op 19

Michael Wigram enjoys a varied career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. He has performed at The Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square, and has toured extensively across the UK. As a soloist he has played the Elgar, Dvorak and Shostakovich Concertos and Brahms Double Concerto. Pianist Lynn Arnold performs frequently throughout the UK and internationally as chamber musician, soloist and accompanist. Winner of numerous competitions both at University of Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music, she has collaborated with Roderick Williams, Gabriela Demeterova and Roger Coull. The Duo’s lunchtime programme features Beethoven’s outstanding G minor Sonata, which brings true liberation to the cello as a solo instrument and, in Rachmaninov’s 150th Anniversary year, his epic G minor Sonata, one of the greatest works for this combination.

Admission £10 (student £2) by programme at the door

Wednesday 20th September 1.45pm

The Oak Tree Centre, Wallinger Drive, MK5 7GZ

Dance Music Through the Agesi) From Earliest Times to Baroque

A talk by Adrian Boynton,  illustrated with fine CD recordings

In the first of a special series we trace the history of dance music from the rituals and ceremonies of ancient times through the processional court dances (pavane and galliard) of the Middle Ages and Renaissance to the earliest ballets and ‘masquerades’ of the Seventeenth Century. We will explore the extensive use of dance styles in the orchestra and keyboard Suites of Telemann, Handel and (greatest of all) Bach. All welcome, 1.45 start, 4pm finish. Ample free parking. Mid afternoon break for refreshments and conversation.

Admission £5 at the door

Wednesday 27th September 2.30pm

Exploring Music at 11 Burewelle, Two Mile Ash, MK8 8LS

Music in Nineteenth Century England

Sterndale Bennett - Arthur Sullivan - Ethel Smythe

A talk by Adrian Boynton illustrated with fine CD recordings

After having the 16 year old Sterndale Bennett play his first Piano Concerto in London, Mendelssohn invited him to Leipzig where he enjoyed the close friendship of both Mendelssohn and Schumann and won the hearts of the Leipzigers with a triumphant performance of his 3rd Piano Concerto - a true masterpiece. Aside from the famous Savoy operettas, Arthur Sullivan wrote much fine orchestral music which deserves to be better known. This afternoon we enjoy his ‘Macbeth’ Overture, ‘Irish’ Symphony and beautiful Cello Concerto, as well as excerpts from his large-scale Te Deum, written for Crystal Palace in 1872. Twelve years later, at the same venue, Ethel Smythe ‘stepped out’ into the London scene with her first orchestral work, the Symphonic Serenade in D. The work was well received, and public and press alike were astonished that a woman could write such ‘muscular’ music! Today we will also hear the splendid Concerto for Violin and Horn and the overture to the operatic to her operatic masterpiece ‘The Wreckers’. Join us for an inspiring afternoon of music.

Admission £5 at the door