Clone of Last Night of the Proms

Sat 11th August  Once again Kentwell will be presenting a Last Night of the Proms Concert to conclude our short Open Air entertainments Season. This year the Concert will feature Carmina Burana with a large Choir, large Orchestra and Soloists Book Online Now

Weather

In 2006 Kentwell's Last Night Concert was severely affected by weather. To avoid this happening again, Kentwell will be using a huge stage cover which will cover almost the whole of the Courtyard. This will not only provide full cover for a large number of performers but also will extend over much of the remainder of the Courtyard. This will also provide a degree of weather protection for a limited number of Promenaders assembling on the Courtyard.

Promenading Tickets

It will be possible for only a small section of the Audience to act as Promenaders rght in front of the Orchestra. Special Promenader Tickets (cost £5.00) will be avilable for this. Promendars will be given a silly hat and, maybe other items, to enliven their audience participation contribution.

Orchestra

We welcome back the London Gala Orchestra - who performed a Viennese Evening programme so memorably at Kentwell a few years ago. The Orchestra is best known for its summer Open Air Performances at Stately Venues round the country and also for its Viennese Night New Year programmes. The Orchestra normally performs with about 30 members but for Carmina Burana a larger orchetsra is needed and the Orchestra will be swelled to more than twice its normal size. We are pleased to have them at Kentwell once again.

Carmina Burana

Is the name given by Smeller in 1847 to a collection of many hundred songs and poems written mostly in Latin in the 13th C and found, and now housed in a Museum, in Germany. Carmina tarnslates as 'songs' and Burana is a reference to the village near Munich where Smeller considered the works originated. Nowadays it is thought they may have come from another Abbey. The pieces were written by clerics, thought to be young students, satirising the Church. They deal with many subjects in which love is prominent and has earned the songs the reputation of being erotic.

In 1935 and 1936 Carl Orff set some of the songs to music and it is his work that we now know as Carmina Burana but he is by no means the only composer to have set the works to music. Some have been attempts to re-create their early Germanic accompaniment.

Carl Orff's version has been widely used in films and as backing for TV Advertisements. Perhaps the film with which the work is most associated is Lindsay Anderson's If.

It is some of the most stirring music ever penned even if the words are lost on most of us. It will fulfil a long held ambition of Patrick Phillips to have the work performed at Kentwell.

Choirs

Carmina Burana needs a very large choir. For this performance, the Beccles Choral Society and the Lowestoft based Pakefield Singers, two fine Suffolk choirs are combining. The two choirs have joined together previously to sing Carmina Burana at Snape.

The Beccles Choral Society has been singing since 1874 (not the present Members, of course). They come to Kentwell having had (we hope) a successful concert singing with Aled Jones in Lowestoft in April.

The Pakefield Singers may be much more recently formed as a choir, but have quickly gained a high reputation.

Choirmaster

Vetta Wise born in South Africa, moved to the Waveney Valley in Suffolk in 2002 from Cape Town where, over many years, she held important posts in the city's musical life.

A student at the University of Cape Town and London's Royal College of Music, Vetta received several scholarships and prizes. Returning home, she joined the National Opera Company (Pretoria) and became a soloist with the National, and the Cape Town, Symphony Orchestras. Giving recitals throughout Britain and South Africa she has participated in master - classes in Nice and Vienna. She was also a regular broadcaster with the SABC, both in the standard and contemporary music repertoire.

Programme

The provisional programme is