City of Peterborough Symphony Orchestra

A concert of great classical music with an English connection, brimming with familiar tunes.

Following Nicolai’s entertaining take on Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor, a gentle clarinet solo introduces Butterworth’s evocation of the English countryside, The Banks of Green Willow. Classic light music follows with Ronald Binge’s The Watermill and Elizabethan Serenade, both well-used for signature tunes. After Purcell’s yearning Dido’s lament Remember Me, the first half concludes with popular radio tunes by Eric Coates, and Calling All Workers.

The second half is a Last Night of the Proms sequence, opening with Walton’s march Crown Imperial, at once glorious and solemn, then Vaughan Williams soaring The Lark Ascending. At the climax of Henry Wood’s uplifting Fantasia on British Sea Songs, sing along to Rule Britannia!, Elgar’s rousing Land of Hope and Glory, and finally to Hubert Parry’s 1916 setting of William Blake’s poem Jerusalem.

An evening of nostalgic joy!