Salomon Past Concerts

2nd November 2008 at Cheltenham Town Hall

Cheltenham`s Homage to Holst

In aid of the Holst Birthplace Museum

Conductor Martyn Brabbins Cello Julian Lloyd Webber

Coles  Comedy of Errors Overture

Holst  Invocation

Butterworth  The Banks of Green Willow

Holst  The Planets

'I like to feel Holst would have been overwhelmed by this concert. However, as one who did so much to encourage amateur music making, he would surely have been delighted with the quality and dedication of these fine musicians.' Roger Jones, Seen and Heard International, November 2008.

Rehearsing The Planets at Cheltenham Town Hall

In 1927 Gustav Holst conducted The Planets at Cheltenham Town Hall which was organised by local  people in recognition of his achievements. He described it as 'The most overwhelming event of my life'. The programme here commemorated the event, but with works from two of his friends who were killed in the Great War. 2008 is the 120th anniversary of Coles' birth, and the 90th of his death retrieving the wounded near the Somme, two years after George Butterworth died there.

Roger Jones wrote: 'This was a spellbinding performance made all the more remarkable by the fact that the Salomon, now in its 45th year, is not a professional orchestra. However Martyn Brabbins, currently its president, appeared not to have noticed and drove his musicians hard throughout.' Read the whole thing at Seen and Heard International.

Donald Hollins in his Crackerjack review: 'The excellent amateur Salomon orchestra under conductor Martyn Brabbins gave a splendidly confident account of Holst's masterpiece which is so varied in its content... The final section, Neptune the Mystic, was beautifully rendered not least by the ladies of the Cheltenham Bach Choir, the effect of whom was suitably haunting.'

You can hear the Comedy of Errors Overture and other works of Cecil Coles on the CD 'Music from behind the lines' with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by our president Martyn Brabbins. Click the image above for a link to Hyperion Records.

Bows with the ladies of the Cheltenham Bach Choir

Orchestrations

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©Salomon Orchestra

2008

President Martyn Brabbins - Vice President Oliver Taylor - Registered Charity No. 256753