THE Vale Royal String Orchestra is set to perform in a summer concert with a dark twist.
Their performance on June 14, will include the eerie music from the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film, Psycho, in the Great Hall of Vale Royal Abbey at 7pm.
The orchestra will be joined by award-winning Welsh harpist Bethan Conway.
The concert will also feature Debussy’s impressionistic Danse sacrée et Danse profane, first performed in Paris in 1904.
Additionally, the audience will hear The Five Variants of Dives & Lazarus, written in 1939, based on an English folk tune that Ralph Vaughan Williams first heard in 1893.
Edward Elgar’s Sospiri (Opus 70) for string orchestra and harp will also be performed.
The piece was composed just before the start of the First World War and reflects a change in mood from a 'sigh of love' to foreboding over the coming conflict.
Two contrasting pieces from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite, The Death of Aase and Anitra’s Dance, will also be on the programme.
These were originally written as incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s play, which details the downfall and redemption of the charming but reckless anti-hero, Peer Gynt.
The concert will also feature a performance of Greensleeves, an arrangement for harp and strings by Ralph Vaughan-Williams, with the tune actually composed by Richard Jones.
Conducting the evening will be Richard Adamson, who studied music at Cambridge and conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Tickets, available at the door, are priced at £18 for adults and £8 for students and children.
Both contactless and cash payments will be accepted.
Profits from the event will go towards the continued mission of St Mary’s Church, Whitegate.
The concert promises an eclectic mix of haunting, historical, and classical pieces, offering an engaging evening for all music enthusiasts.
