Glyndebourne - Bach Charity Concert

Television has such a hold on our consciousness that fine pieces of classical music will for ever be associated with products that they have been used to advertise. Thus Dvorak’s ‘New World Symphony’ is to a generation known as ‘the Hovis Music’. Similarly Bach’s ‘Air on the G String’ (stop sniggering at the back) rarely fails to bring to mind the Hamlet ads in which assorted men take solace in their cheap B&H-made cigar as their world is about to descend into rack and ruin.

Glyndebourne’s annual charity concert, featuring music from Johan Sebastian Bach, opens with ‘The Orchestral Suite no. 3’, in which ‘Air on the G string’ appears. This is followed by two choral works, ‘Jauchzet Gott’ and the ‘Magnificat’. The latter lives up to its name - a joyous celebration of the Virgin Mary’s realisation she is to bear the Christ child. The music will be played by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the words sung by The Glyndebourne Chorus - all proceeds will go to the Martlets Hospice and Hove and Glyndebourne Education. It is unlikely the evening will end in the sort of disaster that would necessitate the conductor resorting to a Hamlet cigar - Vladimir Jurowski is a rising superstar in the music world, shortly to take over as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic. AG