Sunday Nov 6th 2011, 7:00 pm	Antonin Dvorak
	Royal Northern College of Music
	(map)

This concert was very well received, and enjoyed by the performers.  The orchestra was large and performed well, and the soloists, all alumni of the RNCM, were excellent.  Attendance was respectable, though the auditorium was not full.

Stabat Mater is a thirteenth-century meditation on the grief of the Virgin standing by the Cross, written in Latin in three-line stanzas.  It is attributed to a Franciscan monk, Jacopone da Todi.

Dvorak’s setting, his first work on a religious theme, was begun in 1876 following the death of his infant daughter and completed in 1877 after his other two children had also died. It was his first work on a religious theme. When first performed in London in 1883 it established Dvorak’s fame in the English-speaking world. The music is beautiful, powerful and haunting, an outstanding expression of grief.

The concert began with Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture including the song “Gaudeamus Igitur”.

Soloists
Linda Richardson – Soprano	Kathleen Wilkinson – Alto
Sipho Fubesi – Tenor	Darren Jeffery – Bass
Orchestra	East Lancs Sinfonia
Conductor	Nigel P Wilkinson

Tickets (Adults £14, RNCM students £5, under 18s accompanied by an adult £1) are available from:

– Our ticket secretary on 01457 875 221

– The RNCM box office on 0161 907 5555

– Online via the RNCM web site (explore to find the concert then book online)

Seats can be reserved, so the earlier you book the better the choice of seats.