English music at latest concert from Horsham Music Circle

Spokeswoman Jill Elsworthy said: “Gerald Taylor has chosen this special selection of music to mark St George’s Day, the feast day of England’s patron saint celebrated for hundreds of years.

“Some of the leading English composers are celebrated too in this hour-long programme which includes theatre music and suitably patriotic themes. Opening with Purcell’s Suite from the semi-opera King Arthur, this is among the composer’s finest pieces for the stage first performed in 1691. We hear the Trumpet Tune, Fairest Isle and the Battle Scene. Benjamin Britten regarded Purcell as possibly the greatest English composer. In the front rank of these great composers, and thought the most significant since Purcell, is Elgar. The Sonata in G Op.28 was his main original organ work written as an offering to some visiting American musicians. The First Movement, Allegro maestoso, will be played and we will also be treated to the popular Pomp & Circumstance March No 4, an expression of national pride. The church at Holsworthy near Dartmoor is known for its Carillon, the original installed in 1865. Samuel Sebastian Wesley, one of the most distinguished English church musicians of his time, composed a theme for the Carillon with variations following. It became his best known piece in a simple romantic pastoral idiom and early Victorian in character.

"Eric Coates was a leading viola player who later turned to composition. Elgar loved listening to the popular Marches from his London Suites. Oxford Street March is very English in style with immediate appeal. Nigel Ogden is an English theatre organist and composer who became well known for his weekly BBC Radio 2 programmes in a long running series of The Organist Entertains.

"So before the final Elgar Pomp & Circumstance, we hear Ogden’s patriotic England’s Glory and the humorous Penguins’ Playtime. No need to book just come along. Entry is free with a retiring collection.”