The Elgar Sinfonia on June 22nd will perform a special concert acknowledging the 80th VE Day Celebrations in the beautiful spiritual setting of St Andrew’s Holborn, London 

The music will be reflective, respectful of the sacrifice, moving and celebratory. 

Elgar wrote his choral work ‘The Spirit of England’ during WW 1 setting the poems from ‘The Winnowing Fan’ by Binyon that have become part of our national experience of mourning. Elgar wrote music deeply felt about the very day the War started, the Women left behind and the memory of the end of the conflict.  It resonates as a reminder of the tragedy of all wars. That Binyon wrote these poems of such profundity is even more astonishing given their date; Autumn 1914- so prophetic. 

The magnificent settings of Psalms 29 and 48 are grand and celebratory, composed for special services in St Paul’s Cathedral. The drama of the words is vividly portrayed in our great composers setting. Quiet reflective relief comes in our concert with Edward’s ‘Sospiri’ (Sighing) for Strings, short and meditative, played first at London’s First Night of the Proms Concert in 1914 a few days after War had been declared. 

Sir Arthur Bliss was Master of the Queen’s Music in the 1960’s and 70’s and wrote much glorious music in celebration. Musicians this year are remembering him on the 50th anniversary of his passing. 

His was wife, Lady Trudy Bliss, was a great personal friend of me and my family, living for well over a century! She came to many of my concerts and would be delighted we are playing her husband’s ‘Introduction and Allegro’. Written in the 1930’s for the USA and the Conductor Leopold Stokowski (he of the ‘Fantasia’ and Mickey Mouse fame), this compact, brilliantly written piece for our orchestra will expand the emotions to be heard in this varied and stimulating programme. Conducting the Bliss will take me back 53 years to the fact that I conducted it for my Royal Academy Exam!! 

Adrian Brown