Current Season
Harrogate Choral Society warmly welcomes you to its 2011-2012 Concert Series...and what a Series we have in store!
We launch our Concert Series in November 2011 with Mozart's Requiem and Violin Concerto No 5 featuring the internationally renowned violinist Nicola Benedetti. As part of the festive season we will be performing the ever popular Handel's Messiah and joining with local school children and the Harrogate Symphony Orchestra for the Family Christmas Concert. A highlight of our programme will be Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius which we perform in Ripon Cathedral in March 2012. Our Series rounds off in June 2012 with glorious music for A Royal Celebration for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
Download the 2011-2012 Concert Series brochure or view details below. Why not enter the dates of our concerts into your diary now?
Download Concert Series brochure (PDF 1MB) »
Thank you for your support of
our Concert Series - we
look forward to welcoming you at one of our performances.
(Please note that tickets for
concerts in the Royal Hall and Harrogate International Centre are
available from Harrogate Theatre Box
Office Tel: 01423 502116 - opening hours 10am to 5pm Mon to Sat - or
online at www.harrogatetheatre.co.uk)
| Saturday
12 November 2011,
7.30pm The Royal Hall, Harrogate |
 Mozart with Nicola Benedetti Claire
Wild Soprano Manchester Camerata Orchestra Andrew Padmore Conductor "In
the Requiem [the chorus] were on top form.
They confidently attacked the fugal passages in the Kyrie and the
Hostias. Singing out with energy when required, they were also able to
maintain colour and quality when restrained in volume, as in the Salva
Me which follows the outbursts of Rex Tremendae...Yet again, Andrew
Padmore demonstrated what a good conductor he is, sensitively
accompanying Benedetti and drawing fervour as well as precision from
his choir...A truly memorable evening." |
| Saturday
3 December 2011,
7.30pm The Royal Hall, Harrogate |
 Handel Elizabeth
Cragg Soprano Manchester Camerata Orchestra Andrew Padmore Conductor "...few
[people] will have heard a performance
quite as magnificent as that given by Harrogate Choral Society and the
Manchester Camerata under
the meticulously well-prepared baton of Dr Andrew Padmore...Here now
was a large choir, balanced between the different voices
producing a mature and most vibrant sound; indeed one of the exciting
sounds the Choral Society has produced in many years...Handel himself
would have been very impressed by this performance of
Messiah; so full as it was with both playing and singing of such high
quality; a splendidly led orchestra dedicated to providing quality at
the highest level together with an exceptionally well-prepared chorus
of
voices and a superb set of soloists. Many congratulations to all but
especially to Andrew Padmore for drawing all the threads together to
produce such an amazingly rich performance of this wonderful and
enduring masterpiece." |
| Saturday
17 December 2011,
7.00pm Harrogate International Centre |
 Family Christmas Concert Harrogate
Symphony Orchestra Marilynne Davies & Bryan Western Conductors One of Harrogate's most community-spirited events, this concert of Christmas music, flavoured with a bit of seasonal fun, sees the Harrogate Symphony Orchestra and Harrogate Choral Society join forces with over 300 children from primary schools in Harrogate and surrounding villages. This concert, now in its seventeenth year, is organised by Marilynne Davies, Deputy Music Director of the Harrogate Choral Society and Bryan Western, conductor of the Harrogate Symphony Orchestra and is generously supported by sponsorship from local businesses. In addition to enjoying the singing treats in store, be prepared to exercise your own vocal chords and welcome a very special visitor! Please note that this concert is not part of a Benefactor's season |
| Saturday
10 March 2012,
7.30pm Ripon Cathedral |
|
Elgar Margaret
McDonald Mezzo
Soprano Amici Orchestra Andrew Padmore Conductor Tickets
£18 ON SALE NOW Tickets are available from Gill Crowther, Tel 01423 817885 or Pomp & Circumstance, 22 Commercial Street, Harrogate, Tel 01423 504035 - opening hours 9.30am to 5.30pm Tuesday to Saturday Before the first performance of the work, Elgar pinned many hopes on Gerontius: it represented his Catholic faith, and he knew that it was good. At the end of the score he had written a quotation from Ruskin: "this is the best of me...this I saw and knew: this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory". Unfortunately the first performance in 1900 was not a success as neither the conductor nor the chorus liked the music and its difficulties and so made very little effort to learn it properly. The same cannot be said of Harrogate Choral Society who are joined by Margaret McDonald - Mezzo Soprano; Bonaventura Bottone - Tenor; Robert Poulton - Bass and the Amici Orchestra, all under the expert direction of conductor Andrew Padmore. The Dream of Gerontius is based on a poem by Cardinal John Henry Newman which tells of the death of Gerontius (from the Greek for 'old man') and the experience as his Soul approaches God. Today, the work is undoubtedly the most popular of all Elgar's choral works, and indeed among the most frequently performed of all his works. Very few people can remain unmoved by the priest's invocation to Gerontius - as part 1 ends - to 'go forth' ('Proficiscere, anima Christiana'); nor, in part 2, by the chorus of 'Praise to the Holiest'. |
| Saturday
2 June 2012,
7.30pm The Royal Hall, Harrogate |
 A
Royal Celebration with
Sarah Fox Soprano Harrogate Choral Society Orchestra Andrew Padmore Conductor Tickets
£24, £22, £20 & £17 |