At the Colosseum on Saturday, 14th June, at 7.30pm, the choir and orchestra of Watford Philharmonic Society will be performing the last concert in their 73rd season. This has been entitled ‘A French Collection’ and includes works by Saint-Saens, Fauré, Poulenc and Schönberg.

The programme opens with two pieces by Gabriel Fauré. The Pavane, is a short but enchanting work which obtains its rhythm from the Spanish court dance of the same name, composed in 1887. This will be followed by the Cantique de Jean Racine, a work for mixed chorus and organ. Written in 1864, when the composer was nineteen years old, it won him the composition prize at his college, the École Niedermeyer, and despite the youth of its composer is renowned for its mature simplicity.

The Gloria by Francis Poulenc was written in 1959 and is one of his most celebrated works. Scored for soprano, orchestra and chorus it was commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation and premiered in 1961 in Boston by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Poulenc effortlessly takes the audience through moods of elation, wonder and contentment. Rosalind Waters, solo soprano, studied at the Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, gaining diplomas in singing and violin, before going on to complete her training at the Royal College of Music in London where she was awarded the Peter Pears Exhibition. She has appeared as a soloist with choirs throughout the UK and on the Continent and sung in numerous concerts and recordings with various choirs.

After the interval the audience will have an opportunity to hear the splendid, recently-restored organ during a performance of the final movement of the Symphony No 3 in C minor by Camille Saint-Saens, popularly known as the ‘Organ Symphony’. This work was dedicated to the composer’s friend, Franz Liszt, and was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society in England and was first performed in London in 1886, conducted by the composer. This well-known movement leads to a massive climax and is characterised by the use of piano (four hands) and organ. The soloist, Malcolm Hicks, studied the organ in Birmingham, taking prizes in the diploma examinations of the Royal College of Organists. After reading music at university he continued his studies in piano, cello, singing and conducting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He has played with all the major orchestras, chiefly in recent years with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, as well as travelling world wide on concert tours.

The evening ends with a concert performance of a selection from Les Misérables. This popular show has been a huge success internationally and is still playing to full audiences in London after twenty two years, making it the longest-running musical in West End history. Claude-Michel Schönberg composed his masterpiece in 1980 inspired by the novel of the same name written by Victor Hugo in 1862.