Step into a magical world in Grace-Evangeline Mason’s The Imagined Forest, an enchanting musical picture of a wild woodland filled with colour, light and beauty. The mystical tones continue in Holst’s glorious The Hymn of Jesus, a call to join the joyful divine dance and a unique response to the suffering of the First World War. The concert’s second half features some of Charles Villiers Stanford’s finest and most compelling music in the Stabat Mater. A vivid musical depiction of the Passion and the sorrows of Mary, the intensity and drama of the opening subsides into ethereal beauty at the close, telling of the hope of redemption and life in paradise. https://3choirs.org/events/stanford-stabat-mater

Enjoy a fascinating talk and delicious lunch with the Holst and Stanford Societies. Charles Villiers Stanford taught composition at the Royal College of Music for forty years. His students were some of the twentieth century’s most successful British composers, including Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Professor Jeremy Dibble will discuss Stanford’s approach to teaching and why he believes that it was so successful.

Programme Smith Preces and Responses Howells Collegium Regale Richard Blackford I will sing to the Lord Performers Three Cathedral Choirs Nicholas Freestone organ Adrian Partington conductor

Programme Judith Weir A Wreath Tomkins Preces and Responses Ian Venables Evening Canticles premiere Stanford For lo, I raise up Performers Three Cathedral Choirs Nicholas Freestone organ Samuel Hudson conductor

Performers Three Cathedral Choirs Samuel Hudson conductor Programme Eric Whitacre Lux aurumque 4' Stanford The Bluebird 5' Paul Mealor Ringed with the Azure World (Four Madrigals on Birds) 10' festival commission, premiere Stanford Three Motets 11' Bob Chilcott The Angry Planet 45'

A performance of Stanford's Concerto No. 2 with the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Jan van Steen (TBC recorded by BBC). More information to follow.

Performers Ben Cooper narrator Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir Philharmonia Orchestra Adrian Partington conductor Programme Cecilia McDowall Shipping Forecast 13' Stanford arr. Jeremy Dibble Sonata for String Orchestra 36' premiere Ian Venables Requiem 35'

Bridge Three Idylls 12' Stanford Quartet No 5 in B flat 32' Judith Weir String Quartet 13' Elgar String Quartet in E minor 30' The Sussex woodlands which inspired Elgar shine through in his quartet, the ‘captured sunshine’ of the middle movement being much loved by his wife; Elgar chose it to be played at her funeral. Bright summer days and dark winter evenings are captured masterfully by Bridge in his evocative Three Idylls, and Stanford pens a moving musical tribute to his friend Joseph Joachim in his Quartet No 5. Judith Weir’s lyrical String Quartet, based on song fragments, is also brought to life in this exquisite programme by the award-winning Dante Quartet.

Programme Hunt Preces and Responses Stanford Evening Service in A John Rutter Hymn to the Creator of Light Performers Worcester Cathedral Choir Nicholas Freestoneorgan Samuel Hudsonconductor

Dun Laoghaire Organ Concert Series Performance by Judit Maté and Gyula Nagy - https://www.dunlaoghaireorganconcerts.ie/concerts/2024-08-04/judit-mate-organ-gyula-nagy-baritone Te Deum laudamus (Fantasia), op. 116 no. 1 Six Bible Songs, op. 113 no. 1-3 A Song of Freedom: "When the Lord turned again" (Psalm 116) A Song of Trust: "I will lift mine eyes" (Psalm 124) A Song of Hope: "Out of the deep" (Psalm 130) Allegro (on a theme of Orlando Gibbons), op. 105 no. 2 Six Bible Songs, no. 4-5 A Song of Peace: "And there shall come a rod" (Isaiah 11) A Song of Battle: "If the Lord Himself" (Psalm 124) At Eventide, Op. 182 No.6 Six Bible Songs, no. 6 A Song of Wisdom: "I came forth" (Ecclesiasticus 24) Fantasia upon the hymn tune ‘Intercessor’, Op. 187