Events 2014
The 2014 Annual Lunch was held at the Langton Hotel, Cheltenham on Tuesday, 21 January and was attended by twenty three members and friends, including Robert Milnes (a member of the Bliss Trust).
The Arthur Bliss Society’s AGM at the English Music Festival was held on Monday 26 May at Dorchester-on-Thames on a day when the afternoon concert at Sutton Courtney featured the Goldfield Ensemble’s performance of the Clarinet Quintet, the pre-concert talk was by one of our members Dr William Snedden on Things to Come (performed at the previous evening’s concert by the Elstree Concert Band), and an evening concert in the Abbey by the Orchestra of St Paul’s which included Bliss’s Music for Strings. The AGM was well attended despite the torrential downpour and Karen Sellick, Arthur Bliss’s younger daughter was present for the first time and was delighted to meet and chat with ABS members.
Miracle in the Gorbals performed in October by the Birmingham Royal Ballet at Birmingham Hippodrome was an eagerly anticipated event. Forty seven members and friends went by coach from Cheltenham and we were joined at the theatre by members from the Midlands area. There were ample opportunities for us to socialise over tea and cakes during the intervals and, though opinions varied about the ballet, we were all impressed by the music (with which most of us were unfamiliar). It was a wonderful experience enjoyed by everyone. In the Autumn Newsletter David Wilby assembled fascinating information from various sources on the background of the ballet and this production, together with a summary of press criticism from thirteen different publications and two from the ABS group of members and friends present on our visit. His conclusion was that the music received warm praise from the critics and that “the diverse opinions expressed in the reviews” about the ballet made one “more eager than ever to experience Miracle in the Gorbals again”.
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