February 2010

Alea Quartet - Concert in Hartley Wintney

Regular audience members at our concerts will know that we are very lucky to have a wonderful orchestra leader in Amanda Lake.  Her solo playing is also sublime and a treat for all those who listen to her.  An extra opportunity to hear her playing is coming up in April when she leads the Alea Quartet who will be putting on a concert at St John’s Church, Hartley Wintney. They will be playing a programme of string quartet music with an international theme, including works by Haydn, Dvorak, Mozart and Ravel.

January 2010

Snow doesn’t stop Orchestra’s Perpetual Motion!

Our New Year Concert - due on 9th January - had to be postponed when most of the country ground to a halt following heavy snowfall the previous week (9 inches in Camberley) and frozen conditions made driving and parking almost impossible.  Undeterred, the orchestra’s committee re-scheduled the performance for Saturday 17th January and a wonderful evening of dance and operatic music with a Viennese flavour together with seasonal poetry readings was enjoyed by both the orchestra members and the audience. Highlights included ‘Plink, Plank, Plunk’ played by the string section entirely pizzicato, the Toy Symphony starring the cello section who played the ‘toys’ and a moving selection from Madame Butterfly.  The programme included several Strauss pieces including Perpetuum Mobile which can be listened to here.

More sound clips

Concert programme

October 2009

Hallowe’en Treats at Concert

An enthusiastic audience at High Cross Church enjoyed an evening of orchestral treats for the ‘Pelly’ween’ concert on October 31st. Musical Director, Chris Braime, led the orchestra in a challenging programme of music written around the magical, the mystical and the downright terrifying!  The concert began with an atmospheric performance of ‘Mars’ from Holst’s Planets and included other highly topical pieces such as Danse Macabre by Saint-Saëns featuring Amanda Lake on violin and the Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Dukas featuring Paula Burton, Karen Carter and Helen Taylor on bassoons and contra bassoon.  To view the complete programme, click here.

October 2009

New Venue for Summer Proms Concert

At our concert on 31st October our Chairman, Mike Thomson, was delighted to announce that the Orchestra has secured the Church on the Heath, Fleet,  for its next Summer Proms Concert. This event has been a complete sell-out for the last two years and it was felt that a larger venue was needed for 2010. The Church on the Heath offers more audience space and - crucially for an orchestra - more acoustic space.  It has excellent facilities and there is plenty of free parking in the immediate vicinity.

September 2009

Leader Amanda in prestigious concert

The Orchestra was delighted to learn that our leader, Amanda Lake will be playing in the Purcell Room on 11th October.  She is a member of  the Alea Quartet who have been asked by the Park Lane Group to play Peter Maxwell Davies 10th Quartet.  For more details or to book tickets, click here for the Southbank website.

May 2009

Playday at Farnham Maltings

The Orchestra welcomed local musicians to join them for their first ‘Playday’ at Farnham Maltings on Saturday 31st May.  This was a fabulous opportunity to tackle the challenging and very beautiful Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2 in E Minor. We all had a thoroughly enjoyable day, made new friends, and had a lot of fun playing a variety of music under the inspirational baton of Christopher Braime.  To view photos of the day, click here.

December 2008

A Very Pelly Christmas!

Our Christmas concert on 20th December 2008 was a festive occasion with music to suit all ages.  The highlights included ‘Tubby the Tuba’ (narrator Lesley Nicholls, tuba soloist Daniel Barnes) and The Snowman (narrator Lesley Nicholls, soloist Tabitha Machin).  Also on the programme were a spectacular performance of music from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ by Klaus Badelt, the Suite from ‘The Nutcracker’ by Tchaikovsky, Troika by Prokofiev, ‘Sleigh Ride’ by Leroy Anderson and communal carols.  

October 2008
Organ Symphony and Horn Concerto for Season Start

Our 2008/2009 season began with a highly varied concert: ‘The Pelly Guide to Music’.  The programme aimed to illustrate the capacity of music to excite and move its audience and included a rousing overture ‘Zampa’  by Hérold, the delightful Jig from Holst’s St Paul’s Suite and the first movement from Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.  The first half ended with the Strauss Horn Concerto played brilliantly by Martin Priestley and the concert ended with a spine-tingling performance of the Finale from the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony.  To listen to excerpts from this concert, click here.

October 2008
See the Orchestra on YouTube!

We were lucky enough to have our Prom Concert in July filmed by friend of the Orchestra Bob Gunn.  The film was linked with a sound recording by Mike Thomson.  Have a look on the links below where you can see the Orchestra playing Bizet’s Carmen from the first half of the concert and one of Henry Wood’s Sea Song variations from the second half including audience participation!

Carmen

Sea Songs

July 2008
Prom Concert Triumph!
The orchestra was thrilled to play to a packed and enthusiastic audience for their ‘Prom Concert’ on 12th July in Hartley Wintney.  Highlights included the sublime ‘The Lark Ascending’ by Vaughan Williams featuring Amanda Lake playing the violin solo.  This was Amanda’s debut as the orchestra’s leader and her beautiful playing was breathtaking.  The first half of the concert also included classics such as Carmen Overture (Bizet), Karelia Suite (Sibelius) and Orpheus in the Underworld Overture (Offenbach).

In the second half, audience and orchestra really entered into the spirit of the ‘Last Night of the Proms’ with the help of whistles, flags and hats and the reappearance of Musical Director Christopher Braime complete with union jack waistcoat!  The orchestra performed Henry Wood Sea Songs, Land of Hope and Glory (soloist Linda Coster) and Jerusalem with, of course, lots of audience participation.  What a wonderful way to finish off the season!

Listen to Christopher Braime talking about this concert

More Photos

Sound Clips

April 2008

Goodbye Brenda and Linda

After ten years as our librarian, Brenda Kegel has finally decided to have a well earned rest on Tuesday nights. She has hardly missed a week and never missed a concert and we are most grateful for all that she has done to enable the orchestra to function so smoothly. Her organisational skills have been stretched but she always comes out smiling.  We thanked her on 29th April when her neighbour and friend, Jacky Cowley, made a delicious cake and we presented Brenda with a cuddly teddy bear, CDs of two of her favourite male singers, Bryn Terfel and Alfie Boe, and a year’s subscription to Classic FM magazine. In addition we have made her a Life Patron of the Pelly.

As Brenda was leaving, Linda Tan also decided to step down as assistant librarian and we thank her too for all the work she has done and for playing the piano at one of our concerts.  Both ladies will be sorely missed but we are pleased to announce that Barbara Sykes and Ed Shelton have offered to take over as our new Librarians.