Our Society
ReviewsReview: TPS Summer 2024 Concert
Another joyful night was spent serenaded by Tonbridge Philharmonic Society, and what a highly talented group they are! Last Saturday’s Summer Prom Concert definitely had a last night of the Proms vibe, complete with audience participation and Name that Tune comical medley, and a fantastic master of ceremonies to introduce us to each new rendition. The evening began with the orchestra’s wonderful...
Review: TPS March 2024 Concert – Bach Mass in B Minor
What a joy to spend an evening at the Tonbridge School Chapel being serenaded once more by the superb Tonbridge Philharmonic society’s latest rendering, Bach Mass in B minor. What a triumph! I always look forward to the TPS concerts for I know that I will be entertained, educated and thrilled. The quality of this amateur choir and orchestra is exceptional, one could fool oneself into believing...
Review: TPS February 2024 Concert – Tchaikovsky 4
The first concert of 2024 was exciting and a great start to the rest of the season. Tonight’s performance was some classics, an exciting programme. To set the scene; the evening was accompanied by excellent programme notes that had been researched by Joanna Mace and added huge enjoyment and education to the whole evening. The setting for this concert was the intimate surroundings of Tonbridge...
Review: TPS November 2023 Concert – Belshazzar’s Feast
As the first cold nights of winter approached, the combined forces of the Tonbridge Philharmonic Society presented an English programme of music by Vaughan Williams, Holst and Walton from around a hundred years ago. Susan Spain-Dunk’s sparkling Kentish Downs Overture opened the evening, first performed in 1926 and revived at the Proms in later years. Wonderful woodwind and string interchanges...
Review: TPS July Concert – Treading the Boards
Review of Tonbridge Philharmonic Society Concert – 1st July 2023 The Tonbridge Phil concert on 1st July was entitled ‘Treading the Boards: Theatrical Music Across the ages from Shakespeare to Sondheim'. This included music from the 16th century to the 1980’s. It was an evening combining real favourites and some less familiar music in a thoughtful programme. I was advised it would make us laugh...
Review: TPS May Concert – Copland, Gershwin and Price
Review of Tonbridge Philharmonic Society Concert – 20th May 2023 It’s always an immense pleasure attending a ‘Tonbridge Phil’ concert, with or without the choir: tonight was no exception. They are always well rehearsed and deliver a polished and thrilling performance. Music from three turn-of-the-century American composers took us from the Great Plains and what could have been a John Wayne...
Review: TPS March Concert – Handel, Mendelssohn and Mozart
Review of Tonbridge Philharmonic Society Concert – 25th March 2023 From reading the Chairman’s preface in the handsomely produced programme booklet one could detect something of the frustration and sense of impoverishment for the performing arts caused by the restrictions in force during lockdown – an acute sense of deprivation for singers and players, the musical equivalent of ‘nil by mouth’,...
Review: Orchestral Concert 18th February – Holst The Planets
I am never disappointed by the superb output of Tonbridge Philharmonic Society and last Saturday’s concert was no exception. We were taken on a musical journey beginning on the wild tempestuous coast of Cornwall, to the country idyll of Norfolk, the bustling court of Elizabethan England, to the serene beauty of Bonnie Scotland, the crowded streets of London and finally up, up into very space...
Review: Verdi Requiem
The very well-produced programme for the Tonbridge Philharmonic Society’s performance of the Verdi Requiem on Saturday 19th November 2022 in Tonbridge School Chapel contained some interesting memories from Joanna Mace on the last 75 years of the Society. Although now in its 77th season, this concert was intended to be a 75th anniversary celebration, postponed for obvious reasons. This...
Review: Summer Concert – a programme of American Classics
You cannot say that Tonbridge Philharmonic Society’s programming is anything other than challenging! Last nights offerings were no exception. An interesting, if a little unexpected, evening was another triumph for this wonderful musical society. The final concert of the season began with aplomb with a lesser known, yet charmingly lighthearted Overture from Primrose by Ira and George Gershwin....