Novello and Co marks bicentenary with concert

A live concert will be held in London to mark the bicentenary of Novello and Co.
The Bach Choir, the Philharmonia Orchestra and cellist Raphael Wallfisch will perform at the Royal Festival Hall on September 20th to celebrate some of the classic works published by Novello over the past 200 years.
Works will include those by Handel, Elgar and Parry, as well as modern composers and music from film.
Presenter Aled Jones will host the event, called The Best of British, and the night will also feature two specially-commissioned works.
They will be two fanfares, one by composer John McCabe, which will open the evening, and the second by Patrick Hawes.
Other highlights of the concert include Elgar’s Nimrod from Enigma Variations, Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus and Parry’s I Was Glad, which was the processional music at this year’s royal wedding.
The theme from Goodbye Mr Chips by Richard Addinsell will also be performed.
Meanwhile, another new fanfare has been premiered, this time at the BBC Proms. Judith Weir’s new work, Stars, Night, Music and Light is a four-minute piece for mixed chorus, orchestra and organ.
Using text from Man by George Herbert, the work was performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC Singers at the First Night of the Proms on July 15th.
It had been specially commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and was conducted by Jiri Belohlavek.
Ivan Hewett from The Telegraph said of the work that reflecting on Weir’s past pieces that have included a ten-minute opera for one voice, “it was only to be expected that she would come at the genre of ‘grand curtain-raiser’ from an interestingly sideways angle”.
“Her setting of George Herbert’s lines hymning the stars and sun was grand enough to need three timpani players, full orchestra and chorus and organo pleno. But it was light on its feet, and kept pulling the rug from under its sturdy major-key assertiveness with curious side-slipping harmonies.”