In July 1962 Havant Symphony Orchestra performed its first concert so we are now celebrating the 50th anniversary of that event with what promises to be a memorable concert.  I can assure you that plenty of hard work has been going on as we prepare to do justice to this exciting and varied programme.  As Peter has indicated, next season will be fascinating as we work towards choosing a replacement for Peter as conductor of HSO (don’t forget that Peter still has one more HSO concert to conduct in December and will continue to conduct the Chamber Orchestra).  The season’s programme is as fresh and varied as ever and I hope as many as possible will become Season Ticket Holders and will follow the whole process with interest.

This is my last Newsletter contribution as Chairman of the Society as I am standing down at the AGM after 15 years in the post.  It has been a great honour to be Chairman of the Orchestras and a great pleasure to get to know so many of our wonderful audience.  I have been fortunate to work with such a great team of committee members and the many, many others who help the Society in so many ways and I shall not be disappearing from the scene but hope to be involved with the Havant Orchestras for many years to come.

At the AGM a new person will be elected to chair the Society as it moves into a new phase.  Looking to the future there will be many decisions to be made and I would like to appeal to you if you feel you could help to come forward and join the committee or offer help in any other way.

The music is what it is all about but it doesn’t just come about of its own accord and at this point in our history we need the strongest possible team to make sure the music continues to flourish in the future.

The bar will be open after the concert and I should love to see you there and hear your opinions of the concert.  Then many of us will meet at the Celebration Supper on 13 July (a few places still available).

Then I wish everyone a most enjoyable summer break – hopefully with better weather than we have been ‘enjoying’ lately and see you again in September – on the 7th at the AGM and 22nd at Hayling Island for HSO’s ‘Popular Classics’.

Tony Gutteridge
(023 9247 4681 or acg@waitrose.com)

Saturday 7 July Programme

Upbeat in the Meon Hall at 6.30pm

Dear Upbeaters!

As lots of you will know, I will be on-stage at Portsmouth Guildhall for several days just before the concert so, sadly I shan’t be playing in the concert.  This also means that I can’t organise Upbeat this time.

However,  … I have persuaded a very good friend and colleague of mine to take over.  Her name is Kate Durbin and she plays cello in HSO.  She also teaches music and also presents sessions for other organisations, just like I usually do for Upbeat.  So I really hope that you will all come to Ferneham Hall on Saturday to meet her and join in the activities she’s planned for you.

Best wishes
Becky Hill

The Pre-Concert Interlude in the Octagon Lounge

7.00 – 7.30pm

All Details on Saturday

When a performing society with an ephemeral membership reaches a special milestone – like a 50th Anniversary – it is usually the occasion for huge festivities and masses of nostalgia.  The time for trotting out rainbow statistics, meaningful and meaningless; for recalling performances, soloists, leaders and players, and for re-engaging with anecdotes – real or imagined – and so on.  Whilst there will undoubtedly be a lot of all that going on – and quite rightly so because 50 years of continuity and progress is a big achievement – we have, in this Society, reached a major watershed where looking backwards is less important than reaching forward to a new era.

As most of you will be aware we have been very busy during this last year planning for my successor with HSO, an enormous burden on the co-ordinator of the project, Steve Bartholomew.

The zenith of all that hard work has been reached in the preliminary auditional rehearsals that have taken place, when the Orchestra has had the exciting opportunity to work with a number of conductors, each with their own personalities, techniques and qualities of musicianship.  Next season you will be able to witness and hear the results of our deliberations when the HSO concerts in September ’12, plus March, July and September ’13 will each be conducted by one of the favoured candidates.  (What a time to take up a Season Ticket and note the September ’13 date!)  We hope then to make an appointment to someone who will carry the Orchestra forward to new levels and new achievements.  Your enthusiasm and support of our endeavours will be much appreciated, and will be a major factor in our existence and development.  Similarly the fabric of the Society and its modus operandi depends on eager volunteers drawn from within our ranks who can share in all the multitude of tasks, large and small, that precede concert performances.  To the players I say DO get involved in the running of your Society; your contributions to extra-musical activities spell out our future, just as much as your brilliance on the stage.

On Saturday we shall enjoy performing our special 50th Anniversary concert in a programme of works which, though not particularly festive per se, nevertheless reflects a range of emotions which will stir our souls in different ways.

I’m delighted to be sharing the platform with Rob Hodge, our current Bursary Holder, who will conduct Rossini’s rarely-heard overture The Siege of Corinth with its wicked moto perpetuo writing for the strings and the ever-popular first Piano Concerto of Liszt whose heroic keyboard glitterati will be demonstrated by our returning soloist James Willshire whom so many of you liked when he last appeared at Oaklands School in January 2011.

I shall have the pleasure of conducting Grieg’s Old Norwegian Romance, a lovely set of short variations on a national folksong.  I think it was the composer and critic Constant Lambert who derided folksong as being devoid of symphonic potential, but here Grieg lavishes all his colourful skill in refashioning this little tune into a myriad of metamorphoses, full of contrasts and varying allusions as all good sets of variations should demonstrate.  Grieg gives a little nod to Constant Lambert by keeping his variations short rather than developing them into longer, more symphonic sections, but for me they’re over all too quickly; I could have enjoyed more yardage.

After the interval I shall have the privilege of joining the players in a performance of Brahms’ magnificent Fourth Symphony.  Each time when I conduct this truly wonderful work (and this will be my sixth occasion) I always uncover / discover new things in my unattainable search for ultimate musical perfection and this, for me, will be another new experience to be relished.

What a tremendously lucky person I’ve been in my long love affair with HSO.

Peter Craddock

CDs for this concert

Sourced by GE

Rossini – Overture The Siege of Corinth
National Philharmonic Orchestra / Chailly
(c/w 13 other overtures).
Double Decca 4438502 (2 mid-price discs)

Grieg – Old Norwegian Romance.
R P O / Beecham
(c/w Peer Gynt incidental music, Symphonic Dance Op 64 No 2,
and Overture In Autumn).
EMI Masters 6787632 (mid price).

Liszt – Piano Concerto No 1
Stephen Hough / Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra / Litton.
(c/w Piano Concerto 2 & Grieg Pno Cto)
Hyperion CDA 67824 (full price).

Brahms – Symphony No 4
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Carlos Kleiber.
DG Originals 4577062 (mid price).

Formal Notice

The 39th Annual General Meeting of Havant and District Orchestral Society will take place on Friday, 7 September, 2012, 7.00pm at St Joseph’s Church Hall, West Street, Havant.

Agendas & Annual Financial Reports are available from the Secretary in advance or at the hall.

All Members of the Orchestral Society, Playing and Non-playing, which includes SEASON TICKET HOLDERS, are eligible and welcome to attend.

Refreshments will be served and the evening will conclude with a rehearsal to which Non-playing members are invited.

Nominations for election to the Committee may be sent to the Chairman in advance (with the names of candidate, proposer and seconder) or submitted at the meeting.

Where is St Joseph’s Catholic Church, West Street, Havant?

From the A27 Havant roundabout – pass Tesco’s turning; turn left immediately after the pedestrian crossing opposite McDonalds; after two right turnings the Church is also on the right and the Church Hall is in the large car park immediately beyond it.

Saturday 22 September, 7.30

Hayling Island Community Centre
The Park, Hayling Island

Havant Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Rob Hodge

Tickets:  £9.00; 
Seniors & Orch Soc Members – £7.00
Children/students – £3.00
on sale at  Ferneham Hall – 7 July  and St Joseph’s – 7 September;
in person from HICC; and Hayling Island Bookshop Mengham
and by post from 1, Beacon Square, Emsworth, PO10 7HU (+sae) from early August.

Cheques payable to HADOS, please

Thank You ….

… to all Players and Listeners – for your support this season.  We look forward to another amazing selection of wonderful performances beginning on 22nd September at Hayling Island.

See you soon!

Musical Evenings at Stansted House

Stansted Park, Rowlands Castle, PO9 6DX

Thursday 13th September, 7.30pm
The Albertine String Quartet

Thursday 4th October, 7.30pm
Veronica Williams, soprano and Friends.

Tickets £8.00 including refreshments
From Stansted Office:  023 9241 2265.

A World Premiere!

It’s not by HSO but has a connection.  The composer is Alex Poulton who is Rebecca Krasniqi’s (cello) brother and a former music student at South Downs College, followed by time at Birmingham Conservatoire, the Franz Liszt Hochshule in East Germany and finally the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest.

The title of his musical is ‘For the Love of Undine’ and is broadly based on the novel by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque.

Sponsored by OOPS! for theatre, the premiere is on 4th September at the Station Theatre on Hayling Island with additional performances on 3rd – to 8th September at 7.45pm and a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm.  Tickets are just £10.00 and can be booked from the Theatre – 023 9246 6363.