First lunchtime chamber concert for over a year at Haywards Heath church

St Wilfrid’s Consort and friends are delighted to present the first lunchtime chamber concert for over a year at St Wilfrid’s Church, Church Road, Haywards Heath on Saturday, July 24.
Ethan Merrick, Tony Donovan, Andrew StoreyEthan Merrick, Tony Donovan, Andrew Storey
Ethan Merrick, Tony Donovan, Andrew Storey

Perennials is at 1.10pm, with free admission and refreshments available from 12.40pm.

Presenter Andrew Storey has chosen the name Perennials to indicate that though pandemics may come and go, we rebuild our lives, just like perennial plants. Accordingly, the programme starts with two very extrovert movements from Daniel Dorff’s trio Perennials, where Andrew on piano is joined by Alison Letschka on flute and Tony Donovan (clarinet).

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The composer wrote: “While beginning work on the trio I was learning to garden for the first time and had decided to spend the summer enriching my new backyard with perennials that I could plant once and enjoy forever. I was very taken with this metaphor about building permanent structures and have always felt composing is about building repertoire that endures, rather than popping out annual crops. This attitude parallels just about everything else in life, building for the long term.”

Concert spokesman Melvyn Walmsley added: “This uplifting concert includes Jessica Ruddock playing the first two movements of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 7, a fine reading given by Ralph George, and Ethan Merrick playing two movements from J S Bach’s Suite No 1 for unaccompanied cello. Roger Floyd (baritone) will sing three songs by Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten, including the latter’s The Sally Gardens and Andrew Storey will be playing his own Lullaby (2015) on the piano. Ethan will close the concert with Järnefelt’s gentle Berceuse and Elgar’s Salut d’Amour.”

There will be a retiring collection in support of church expenses.

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