Musical Notes

Music at the Museum

BOVINGTON Tank Museum will be hosting a series of four open air concerts during the summer, and the first is next Wednesday 21st July.

The Light Cavalry Band, based at adjoining Bovington Camp, launches the season with Proms in the Tank Park, a summer spectacular of patriotic classics including Jerusalem, Land of Hope and Glory, Rule Britannia and many more. The audience is encouraged to join in with the singing and flag-waving.

The second concert, on Wednesday 4th August, brings the Army Big Band from London to Bovington for a Big Band and Jazz Concert to get your toes tapping.

The locally-based Purbeck Big Band celebrates its 40th anniversary with a concert at Bovington on Wednesday 18th August, and the highlight will be a selection of classics from the Roaring Forties.

The final concert features Swing Unlimited in A Night at the Movies, on Wednesday 25th August. The programme will include music from The Pink Panther and James Bond and many more favourite cinema soundtracks.

All four concerts start at 7pm, and the audience is invited to bring low-backed seating and rugs to picnic in front of the large outdoor stage. No seating will be provided.

The grounds open at 5.30. Tickets are available for each individual concert or for the series. To find out more about the concerts, and the refreshments available for purchase, phone 01929 462359.

Bishop's farewell with Monteverdi

THE Bishop of Salisbury, the Rt Rev David Stancliffe, conducts his last concert in the diocese next Sunday 25th July at Milton Abbey.

Bishop David officially retires in September, and his final weeks will be spent completing his diocesan duties and as a member of the House of Lords.

He was an organ scholar during his time at Trinity College, Oxford, also studying classics and philosophy. It was there he met his wife Sarah, when both were members of a chamber choir in the city.

He has retained his passion for early music during his time at Salisbury, where he has been Bishop since 1993, and his annual concerts at Milton Abbey have been eagerly anticipated as highlights of the region's early music.

Bishop David has chosen Claudio Monteverdi's magnificent Vespers of 1610 for his finale, which starts at 6.30pm. He conducts a scratch ensemble and choir made up of some of the area's best known musicians, and the proceeds will be given to the Salisbury-Sudan Medical Link, a charity he and his wife have long supported.

For more information, contact the South Canonry, 71 The Close, Salisbury SP1 2ER (01722 334031). Tickets may also be available on the door at Milton Abbey on the evening of the concert.

Abel to Tavener

THE second concert in the Stock Gaylard series at St Barnabas Church is this Sunday, 18th July, at 6pm, when Frances Eustace and Janet Coles will play solos and duets from Abel to Tavener, for bassoon, cello and viola de gamba.

For more details, please telephone Josie Langmead on 01963 23215.

Folk double bill

NEXT Tuesday, 20th July, two of the UK's best loved acoustic folk performers, Roy Bailey and David Ferrard, come to Bridport Arts Centre.

Roy started his career performing skiffle in student union bars, and has developed his love of traditional songs and the stories they tell into a unique repertoire of songs of dissent and hope. He has been described as "the English Pete Seeger".

He was awarded an MBE for services to folk music in 2000, and six years later returned the MBE in protest at the United Kingdom government's foreign policy with regard to Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

In 2003 Bailey toured with Tony Benn and the politician cites Roy Bailey as "the greatest socialist folk singer of his generation."

David Ferrard blends his own original songwriting with traditional material from both sides of the Atlantic.

The show starts at 8pm.

Summer opera at Eype

SOPRANO Virginia King returns to Eype Church Centre for the Arts (St Peter's) next Saturday, 24th July, with another Summer Evening of Opera.

After the success of the 2009 concert, both the singers and organisers were keen to repeat the experience. The show starts at 7pm, and there will be an extended interval to allow the audience to picnic in the grounds overlooking the Jurassic Cast and Lyme Bay.

This year Virginia will be joined by Maria Jones and Angela Henckle, and will be accompanied by pianist Arwel Treharne Morgan.

Their programme will include scenes from The Marriage of Figaro, La Boheme, The Magic Flute and The Tales of Hoffman, as well as other operatic favourites.

For details, telephone 01308 424901.

Ange Hardy on tour

SOMERSET based singer songwriter Ange Hardy has lined up an autumn tour to follow up the success of her outing in the spring.

She has chosen nine venues across the area, all of them intimate settings where her songs, compared with those of Katie Melua, Kate Rusby, Suzanne Vega and Eva Cassidy, will touch her audience.

The first date of the new tour is next Saturday, 24th July, at the village hall at Norton-sub-Hamdon.

She is also scheduled to perform at the Blake Hall in South Petherton on 21st August, Odcombe Village Hall on 4th September, Hoskyns Memorial Hall at North Perrott on 18th September, the Davis Hall in West Camel on 16th October, and at Martock on 13th November. Other dates are in Curry Rivel, Wiveliscombe and Chiselborough.

The new album will be released at the Odcombe concert in early September.

To find out more, log on to the website, www.angehardy.com, or telephone 07522 112 786.

Demon Barbers at David Hall

THE Demon Barbers Roadshow comes to the David Hall in South Petherton next Saturday, 24th July, much to the delight of their many fans in the area.

The band that was voted Best Live Act in last year's BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards had such a terrific gig last time they were at the David Hall that they said they wanted to return, and they promise even more performers than last time.

Their aim is to produce a theatre show with traditional English dance at its core - so watch out for terpsichorean fireworks.

Modern string classics

NEXT Saturday 24th July the Martucci Ensemble, led by Arisa Fujita, returns to the Meeting House Arts Centre in Ilminster to perform two of the 20th century's most important works for string ensemble.

The programme begins with Arnold Schoenberg's early work Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) and continues with Richard Strauss's Metamorphosen.

Schoenberg's sextet, heavily influenced by Brahms and Wagner, reflects on Richard Dehmel's sexually-charged poem.

Strauss's Metamorphosen for 23 strings, is here transcribed for string septet, and imbued with beautiful dark harmonies. The Martucci Ensemble performed Brahms and Tchaikovsky at the Arts Centre last year, discovering the venue's ideal acoustic for string music.

East meets West

PIANIST Gill Bolton gives a recital entitled East meets West at St Martin's Church in Salisbury next Saturday, 24th July.

The programme includes music from Russia and America, written in the 20th century by Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Stravinsky, Scott Joplin, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein and John Adams

The evening will also include readings from contemporary politicians and writers.

For more details of the performance, which starts at 7.30, telephone 01722 333288.

Scratch music and dance

DURING the past six months, Wessex Community Action has been running the Scratch Orchestra Salisbury, which includes not only musicians but dancers in an informal, inter-generational, mixed-ability group whose first performance will be given at the White Studio at Salisbury Arts Centre next Saturday, 24th July, starting at 6pm.

More details, on 01747 830504 or 01722 421747.