St Albans St Cecilia Festival Society Concert

St Albans Symphony Orchestra

Britten: Fanfare for St Edmundsbury
Britten: Dawn and Sunday Morning from Peter Grimes
Dove: Three Seaside Postcards
Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony

Conductor: Rufus Frowde
Soloist: Charlotte-Anne Shipley (soprano), Morgan Pearse (baritone)

St Albans Symphony Orchestra, Hardynge Choir, Radlett Choral Society, St Albans Chamber Choir and Vivamus

Benjamin Britten was haunted throughout his life by the formidable beauty of the British coast along his native Suffolk, which is the setting for his opera Peter Grimes. Three Seaside Postcards weaves together sea shanties to make sea-pictures; perhaps the kind of postcards you might send back from a holiday. A Sea Symphony, a four-movement choral fantasy, is a monumental work based on Walt Whitman’s poems. It was Vaughan Williams’ first symphony and has remained popular with audiences and choirs since its premiere in 1910.