This is an edited version of the Havant Orchestras newsletter which is provided in printed form (or e-mailed in PDF format, if requested) to players and Friends of the Orchestras.

From the Chairman ...

The Havant Symphony Orchestra concert in March was beset by multiple problems, with our Musical Director, Administrator and pre-concert speaker all unwell and unable to be present.  Fortunately the Society is strong enough that all difficulties were overcome and the result was, to my mind and many others seem to agree, a splendid concert.  Thanks are due to the many people who helped out but of course we are enormously grateful to our Bob Harding Bursary holder, Samuel Draper, who with almost no notice took on the conducting of the massive Brahms’ First Piano Concerto and the unfamiliar Gade Symphony.  He never showed any signs of being flustered but calmly and firmly encouraged us all to produce our best performance.

Let’s hope we have a smoother ride for the Chamber Orchestra’s concert on Saturday where we can look forward to a programme of attractive and lively music.

Providing the printing schedule goes to plan, our bright and exciting brochure for next season is in the envelope (or e-mail) with this Newsletter.  You will find a programme full of fine music, some familiar and some less so, with a mixture of young and established soloists.  As we confirmed in March, our December concert takes place at Oaklands School, just off the A3(M) in Waterlooville.  Those who heard the Orchestras there many years ago will be eager to return to this very popular venue with its lovely warm acoustic.  If you have not been to Oaklands, please do give it a try.  Travel directions will be provided with your tickets and if required, we will organise transport for you.  There are several changes to booking arrangements for next season so please see below for all the details!

I look forward to seeing you all at the concert.  Please let me know what you think of the concert, next season’s programme and anything else you think I should know.

Tony Gutteridge

Ferneham Hall, 15 May

6.30	Pre-concert talk – Angela Blackwell talking about Arriaga and Haydn in the auditorium – all welcome
and	Upbeat Club in the Meon Area
7.00	Interlude in the Octagon Lounge by Horns in Harmony playing ‘Mozart and More!’ …
plus	In the Meon Room The Friends’ Table CDs and books on Sale Book your Tickets for Next Season and for the June HCO concert at Gosport
7.30	The Concert Overture Los Esclavos Felices  Arriaga  Little Suite for Strings  Nielsen  Trumpet Concerto in E flat  Soloist  Huw Morgan  Haydn  Symphony No 7 in A  Beethoven
9.30	approx end of concert then have a safe journey home

The Conductor’s Spring Revival …

written 29 April …

I was so sorry to have missed you all at the last concert - my first casualty to bug-ridden illness in nearly 50 years - so it must have been something special.  IT WAS, and I’m still gathering strength after the onslaught.  My warmest thanks to those of you who were kind enough to write, enquire via friends or telephone with commiserations and good wishes to the residents here at home who, like me, were knocked sideways by the contagious invader.

Whilst I was sad at having to miss working with Sasha (Alexander Karpeyev) again in one of the great piano concertos and waving the flag for Gade the symphonist - I was equally sorry, perversely, not to be able to witness Sam being rudely thrown into the limelight in what was an immensely daunting challenge for him at only a few days notice.  I’ve heard such good reports about the concert and about Sam’s handling of it - he certainly rose to the occasion and so did the players.  Heartiest congratulations to you all - conductor and players - AND to the backroom boys and girls who had to step into Sandra’s shoes and keep the concert logistics and presentation in order with no previous practice.

---

Saturday’s HCO programme has an early summer glow about it - music that is warm, fresh and abounding in vitality springing from the earth.  Arriaga’s exuberant little Overture is a remarkable work from a mere 13-year-old and presaged much for the young composer - had his life not been tragically short only six years later.  Carl Nielsen’s serenading Little Suite for strings, his first published composition, shows considerable skill and awareness of string writing together with embryonic fingerprints of the later and greater Nielsen.  Though appearing quite late on in his creative life, Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto is also a pioneering work highlighting the melodic possibilities of the newly-developed keyed instrument.  The wonderful cantabile quality of the central andante shows just what can be achieved.  Beethoven’s ‘Rite of Spring ballet’ (aka Symphony No 7) dances merrily along with a rustic vigour that often seems to teeter on the edge - no wonder it drew such incredulous comments from his contemporaries!

Peter Craddock

UPBEAT CLUB!

HELLO to all our young listeners!!!

Come and enjoy your very own pre-concert club in the Meon Room at 6.30pm on Saturday for some exciting musical fun.

Your friends and family are welcome to join us!

Stephen Tuck, who is a Friend of the Orchestras, is coming to help me to introduce you to some different types of brass instruments and you’ll have an opportunity to try them and to learn more about their repertoire

I'm looking forward to seeing new and familiar faces but if you need any additional details, please contact me by mobile: 07966 216 887 or e-mail: becky.hill@rocketmail.com.

See you there!  Becky Hill

For The Friends

...from Geoff Porter

Dear Friends

As a relatively new recruit, I have been advised by longer-standing members of The Friends’ administration that the launching of the next season’s brochure and programme is the usual time to request renewal of our Friends’ membership subscriptions by including a ’membership renewal form’ with this general Newsletter.  However, I have different plans(!) and will be writing to / contacting you myself shortly with details of arrangements for next season.

In the meantime I look forward to seeing lots of you at Margaret Prout’s Garden on 13th June.  Two suggestions - please bring as many of your friends as possible and please book your tickets in advance so that Margaret can make sure she has sufficient refreshments for us all!

Very best wishes

Geoff
Friends’ Secretary

CDs for the July Concert Music

Sourced by GE

Elgar  Wand of Youth Suite No 1
RLPO, Vernon Handley
c/w Wand of Youth Suite 2 and Organ Sonata No 1 (orchestrated Gordon Jacob)
Classics for Pleasure 575979-2  Mid price

Tchaikovsky  Violin Concerto
Janine Jansen, Mahler CO, Harding
c/w Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Op 42
Decca 478 0651DH  Full price

Kalinnikov  Symphony No 1
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Neeme Jarvi
c/w Symphony No 2
Chandos CHAN 9546  Full price

CDs - COMPLETELY NEW STOCK

100% of sale price to the Orchestras’ Funds

and

BOOKS as well

10% to the Funds

FOR SALE

in The Meon Room before the concert, during the interval and afterwards!

All about Next Season’s Concerts and Booking Arrangements

The change of venue for December led to a big re-think in the way we advertise our concerts and sell the tickets for them.

We decided to produce a brochure listing all seven concerts in the season and to include a booking form offering several options:

1. a 5-concert Ferneham Season Ticket
2. a 6-concert Season Ticket including the Oaklands concert
3. tickets for the 7 concerts in one package;
4. reserve tickets for Oaklands and/or Hayling without a Season Ticket
5. reserve tickets for any number of the Ferneham Hall concerts on or after 13 September at Ferneham Hall’s Box Office.

These changes have led to a new designation for Margaret Packe, who has been our Season Tickets Secretary since 1991.  She has generously agreed to look after the Hayling and Oaklands tickets as well as Season Tickets and is now Tickets Secretary.  Thank you, Margaret.

So, to renew your Season Tickets and for other readers to book any or all tickets, please turn to Pages 6 and 7 of the new Brochure and follow the instructions.

HOWEVER,

The invitation to pay for your Season Tickets in two instalments is not offered in the Brochure but is still available for existing STHs and for any new STHs wishing to take advantage of this offer.  Simply send two cheques - one dated 1st June; the second 1st September 2010.

AND:

All STHs are eligible to claim the Senior Citizen rate for the Hayling Concert.

As Tony has mentioned in his Foreword, we will include a location map for the two out-of-Fareham venues with the tickets, probably printed on the back of the ticket so that you will have it with you on your way to the concert.

Last but very not least, Margaret will be in the Meon Room on Saturday to receive your booking form and cheque(s) and to answer any queries you may have.

Sandra Craddock, Administrator

Poster Posters

One very helpful STH has taken on the challenge of the locations suggested in the last Newlsetter.  Many thanks and we hope he finds lots of new and friendly display places.

We are also looking for someone/people to cover - Boarhunt, Whiteley, East and West Meons, Meonstoke, Bursledon, Hamble, Curdridge, Waltham Chase - and any other locations that have any sort of display place that would take one of our posters!

Offers to Sandra after the concert, please - 023 9248 3228 or pick some posters up from the table on Saturday and please tell Rosemary which area you can cover.  Many thanks.

Two Events for a Music-full Summer Weekend!

First - join the Chamber Orchestra and Karen to celebrate a 40th Anniversary

Second - join the Friends for a relaxing social afternoon

Gosport and Fareham Music Society 40th Anniversary Concert

at The United Reformed Church
Bury Road, Gosport, PO12 3UD

Saturday 12 June 2010 at 7.30pm

Havant Chamber Orchestra
Conductor Peter Craddock  Leader Brian Howells
Soloist  Karen Kingsley

Sinfonia in E flat, Op 9 No 2	J C Bach
Serenade for Strings	Elgar
Piano Concerto No 2 in G	Haydn
Two Elegiac Melodies	Grieg
Symphony No 29 in A	Mozart

Tickets £6.00 on sale on Saturday, or see the Gosport and Fareham Music Society web site.

Tea in a Summer Garden

Margaret Prout, a Friend and STH, is following in the footsteps of our former Friends’ Secretary Beryl Harding, and has kindly invited The Friends and other supporters of The Havant Orchestras to visit her garden at 39 Blackbrook Park Avenue, Fareham, on Sunday 13th June from 3.00 to 5.00pm for a social afternoon of flowers and conversation.  There will be a Bring and Buy stall and a Raffle (for which contributions are welcome, please!).  Tea and cake will be served and is included in the ticket price of £4.00.

Tickets will be available from The Friends’ Table in the Meon Room on Saturday and advance purchases will be appreciated to assist with catering.  For satnav experts the postcode is: PO15 5JN, and Margaret’s telephone number is 01329 280455.

Ludovic Morlot, Bursary Holder 99-00

Ludovic was at the RFH in London on 17 March conducting the LPO in: Prelude to Lohengrin - Wagner; Brahms’ Violin Concerto, soloist Anne-Sophie Mutter; and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.  No review has been found but a search on the internet revealed that the whole concert was repeated five times in the following week in Germany!

Other Musical Offerings

The Guildhall, Portsmouth

Sunday 23 May at 3.00pm
Marvellous Magical Music In aid of the Rocky Appeal

Milton Glee Club Choir and Band of Hampshire Constabulary with Naomi Tagg, Violin

Tickets from £6.00 with concs. from 023 9243 1198

---

MUSIC IN THE ROUND

at New Theatre Royal, Guildhall Walk, Portsmouth

Friday 28 May, 7.30pm: Ebène Quartet
HAYDN Quartet in E flat, Op 71 No 2
BRAHMS Quartet in C minor, Op.51 No 1
RAVEL Quartet in F

and

Friday 2 July, 7.30pm: Ensemble 360
PROKOFIEV  - Quintet Op 39;
MARTINŮ - Nonet
SCHUMANN - Piano Quintet in E flat, Op 44

Tickets £13.50, (concs £11.00) - from 023 9264 9000

---

St Mary’s Church, Portsea

5 June at 7.30pm
Portsmouth Choral Union
with Osterode Musikgemeinde, Germany

HANDEL - Messiah

Tickets £12.00; Sen Cits £11.00; Students 50%; Children £1.00; from 023 9282 2227 and at the door.

---

MUSIC ON SUNDAYS at Christ Church,

Old Market Avenue, Chichester

27 June, 2.30pm
Chichester String Ensemble
ELGAR - Serenade for Strings Op 20
VIVALDI - The Four Seasons
RUTLAND BOUGHTON - Three Folk Dances

Tickets £8.00; students £4.00 from 01243 527425 and at the door.

Society Contact Details are at the back of the current Programme Book.

Contact information can also be found on the Contacts page within this web site.