- Autumn Concert 2024
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Date Posted: Thu, 29 Aug 2024
It has been said that Benjamin Britten’s cantata ‘St Nicolas’ has all the right elements for our ‘Harry Potter’ age: magic (lots of miracles), drama (storm at sea), imprisonment (will he, won’t he get out?) and even a wand – of sorts – in his crozier!
It was, however, written in 1948 for the Centenary of Lancing College, the old school of Peter Pears, Britten’s muse and partner. With the libretto by Eric Crozier, Britten’s cantata tells of the life of the 4th century Bishop of Myra, recounting some of his most celebrated acts and giving the audience the opportunity of joining in two beautiful hymns at key moments; ‘All people that on earth do dwell’ and ‘God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.
By way of a contrast, the other half of the programme, ‘Friday Afternoons’ is a group of songs that Britten composed in 1933-35 for the children at his brother, Robert’s prep school in Prestatyn, who always had a singing lesson on Friday afternoons. The real beauty of these songs is that Britten never wrote down to the children. He chose the texts to mix both dark and light humour with seriousness and romance to create a little world of changing scenes and emotions. ‘Begone, dull care’ is a lively piece contrasting with the gentle story of ‘The Cuckoo’, the nonsense poem of ‘A Tragic Story’, where a man wants his pigtail to hang in front so that he can see it – and several more, leading to the powerful four-part canon of ‘Old Abram Brown’.
Tenor, Dominic Bevan and accompanist, Trevor Brearley will be joining Bearsted Choral Society under the direction of Andrew Lowen on Saturday 16th November to perform this programme at 7.30 pm. at Holy Cross Church, Bearsted. Tickets £12 will be available on the door or by ringing 01622 734908.
If you would like to join a friendly choral society, whose members really enjoy getting together and singing a variety of music, please come along on Monday evenings at 7.30 pm. We practise at St Peter’s Church, Button Lane, Bearsted ME15 8NJ and we will be delighted to see you.
Jenny Lovelock
- Our 2024-2025 Concert Plans
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Date Posted: Wed, 26 Jun 2024
Looking forward we have a really good season coming up starting in the September. Our concert on November 16th marks the 10th anniversary of my time as Musical Director of BCS. I have chosen Benjamin Britten’s St Nicolas as the work for that occasion, paired with Britten’s Friday Afternoons. Friday Afternoons is a sequence of songs written for the school where Britten’s brother was headmaster and was intended as a fun activity for the tail end of the school week. The title role in St Nicolas was written for Britten’s partner, the tenor Peter Pears, and the work was written for Pears’ old school, Lancing College. The music alternates moments of high drama with energetic choruses. It centres around the miracles of St Nicolas: stilling a life-threatening storm and later bringing three children back to life.
In 2025 our activities will focus around an epic concert on 27th September planned for the Mote Hall in Maidstone where all the local choral societies will come together to make a choir of 200+ voices. BCS will give a concert on 22nd March which will comprise music in preparation for that joint concert and other Baroque works of our own. The programme should be confirmed in the next few weeks. Our concert on 12th July 2025 will be a concert performance of My Fair Lady. The spectacular Lerner and Lowe score is full of great choruses and we shall also sing all the famous melodies. Imagine the BCS ladies singing “All I want is a Room Somewhere” or the men “I’m Getting Married in the Morning”. It will be such fun. We’ll then take a 10 minute medley as our contribution to the Mote Park concert in September.
