Thank you for inviting Mr Redwood to attend the Beenham
Wind Orchestra concert. Mr Redwood very much enjoyed himself and wrote up the
event on his website. He has asked me to forward his article to you as he feels
yourself and the organisers might find this of interest:
Beenham Wind orchestra remembers 1918
I attended
the Beenham Wind Orchestra to hear their Poppies and Peace concert on Saturday.
They were magnificent. After two years in the planning, they delivered a moving
and well-orchestrated programme of music.
The concert
began with the powerful and threatening music from Holst’s Mars, reminding us
of the terrors of war and the sounds of the violence. Dartmoor 1912 evoked the
happy relations between man and horse before they went to war with suffering
for both. Music from Noel Coward’s Cavalcade sent us trying to identify the
popular songs of the First World War. I think I heard Tipperary, Keep the Home
Fires burning, Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and Take me back to
dear old Blighty. David Tredici’s alarming Wartime told us how the sounds of the
bugle and the intense fighting that ensued swamped the strains of Abide with Me
that the soldiers sang before battle.
Later in
the concert we were lulled by the softer tones of Holst’s Venus. The haunting
strains of the Benedictus from the Armed Man by Karl Jenkins were memorably
played. A newer piece, Sunset, by Richard Saucedo served to remind us that
conflict and death carries through to our own era. The evening was finished off
with the much happier and optimistic English country garden. Chris Guy our
compere kept us well informed of what we were to hear. Robert Roscoe conducted
it all in good humour and with great skill.
I would
like to say a big thank you to all the musicians for a wonderful concert, and
to the organisers for making us welcome.
Yours sincerely
Myles Larrington | Caseworker
and Parliamentary Assistant
Office of the Rt Hon John Redwood MP
Member of Parliament for Wokingham | House of Commons,
London, SW1A 0AA
