Our concert this year will take place on Sunday 26th March 2023 at the Royal Hall, Villa Marina

This year’s concert is a celebration of music itself and our chosen works for the 22-23 season reflect this choice. 

Edward Elgar’s thrilling ‘The Music Makers’ (Op 69) was first performed in 1912 at the Birmingham Festival, conducted by the composer.  It sets Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s 1874 poem ‘Ode’ in its entirety beginning with the famous opening –

We are the music makers.

And we are the dreamers of dreams,

Wandering by lone sea-breakers,

And sitting by desolate streams.

Elgar had been working on the piece intermittently since 1903 without a specific commission in mind and the work, whilst mostly original, does quote themes from some of his other compositions including The Dream of Gerontius, Sea Pictures, Nimrod, Rule Britannia, and his first and second symphonies.  As such, it is a work that is intensely personal and perhaps reflects Elgar’s own thoughts on the artist as both an isolated creative figure and one which is important to society.  The work is written for SATB chorus and contralto soloist and we are delighted that Jane Mayne is able to join us once more for this work.

Gerald Finzi’s For St Cecilia (op 30) was commissioned for performance in 1947 at the St Cecilia Day Festival.  The committee of the festival chose the poet, Edmund Blunden to provide the words for Finzi to set.  The two collaborated from the beginning and the resulting work is a glorious choral setting accompanied by full orchestra, with a tenor soloist. 

Our final work for this concert is a new commission from the Manx composer Ellie Quayle set to words by the VIth Manx Bard, Zoë Cannell.