Dear Oxford Bach Choir Supporter

I should like to remind you that our next concert  will be in just under two weeks’ time at the Sheldonian Theatre.  It is an exciting programme: we will be performing with the English Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Nicholas Cleobury.  It will include the world première of two previously unpublished  Psalms by Benjamin Britten, together  with his works Ballad of Heroes and Building of the House.  The programme also includes Mahler’s (arr. Britten) What the Wild  Flowers Tell me,  Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture and the wonderful Gloria by Poulenc.  Soprano soloist will be  Elizabeth  Atherton.  The concert will launch Britten in Oxford – a year-long festival leading up to the centenary of the composer’s  birth in November 2013. (more information at www.britteninoxford.co.uk).

The Two Psalms our conductor Nicholas Cleobury found at The Red House, the building in the Suffolk seaside town of Aldeburgh where Britten and Pears lives and worked from 1957 until their deaths.  They have now been published by MusicSales and show a precocious young Britten setting two very differing Psalms with insight and flair, and an already very sure technique.  At the time they were much praised by Frank Bridge, and make fascinating coupling with other early and late works, alongside an arrangement of his beloved Mahler.

This landmark concert will be recorded by Radio Three.

There will be an article about the concert, the choir and Britten in Oxford in this week’s Oxford Times.

The concert will begin at 7.30pm and tickets are available from tickets@oxfordbachchoir.org, www.oxfordbachchoir.org or 01865 305305.

I do hope you will come and bring some friends.

With best wishes, Katy

Katy Weston

Marketing Manager: Oxford Bach Choir

Willow Tree Cottage

Ashampstead

Berkshire RG8 8RA

Tel: +44 (0) 1635 201356

Fax: +44 (0) 1635 201877

Mobile: +44 (0) 7765 255569