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REHEARSAL CANCELLED WEDNESDAY 6TH JANUARY 2010 DUE TO SNOW.

REHEARSAL CANCELLED WEDNESDAY 6TH JANUARY 2010 DUE TO SNOW.
Our next concert will be at 3:00pm on 14th February 2010 at Pittville Pump Room. We will be playing a romantic selection for our Valentine's Day concert.
Tickets £10, £6 for students under 25, free for those under 16. Available at the door or from the Town Hall Box Office (01242 227979).
"Phileas Fogg took eighty days, but Cheltenham Philharmonic
needed only eighty minutes to complete their (musical) journey
around the world. Their transport of choice was clearly a
sleigh, with no fewer than four sleigh rides featured on the
programme. Clearly the organisers had paid attention to the long
range weather forecast! It began with a Sleigh Ride by Mozart
and Prokofiev's Troika with its unmistakably Russian feel
followed soon after. Delius' Winter Night from Norway had an
attractive jauntiness as did Leroy Anderson's ever popular
Sleigh Ride from the USA. This concert of light music also
brought some lesser known works, such as a movements from
Respighi's Rossiniana which varnishes the opera composer's music
with a rich Romantic gloss. Farnon's A la claire fontaine
inspired by a folk tale from Quebec was characterised by some
fine sinuous playing from the woodwind, while Ippolttov-lvanov's
Procession of the Sardar from Georgia was a pompously festive
affair. Aaron Copland's Danzon cubano from Central America
brought a wild, exotic touch to the afternoon, and there was
also plenty of excitement in La Fete Dieu a Sevilla from
Albeniz' Iberia Suite in an arrangement by Ferdinand Arbos.
There was some local interest in this concert. Introducing
Sibelius' Valse Triste (from Finland, of course), conductor
Duncan Westerman recalled that the composer himself had
conducted the Cheltenham Phil in this work 100 years ago in the
Town Hall. Holst's Somerset Rhapsody blended in well with the
theme of the concert. The distinctive tones of the oboe d'amore,
played with great feeling by John Wright, made this a memorable
experience."
Roger Jones