Programme
4.30pm Gates Open
Before the cavalry displays, while you enjoy your picnic, you will be entertained by the accomplished acoustic guitarist Matthew Ord who will play a selection of Napoleonic folk tunes.
6.45pm Cavalry Displays:
This year the Welsh Horse re-enactors will duel, drill and skirmish their way into the first half of the evening's entertainment.
500th Anniversary Salute - a triumphant volley of shots will be fired by the English Field Artillery Company using a vintage field gun to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Althorp.
7.30pm - 10.00pm The Musical Programme
New English Concert Orchestra
Conductor: Douglas Coombes
Solo Cellist: Matthijs Broersma
Soprano: Denise Leigh
Tenor: James Edwards
Our rousing musical programme commences with a Spitfire Air Display choreographed to Gustav Holst's Jupiter! You can look forward to a wealth of triumphal classics performed by the New English Concert Orchestra including Antonin Dvorįk's New World Symphony No 9 and Johann Strauss' beautiful waltz Artist's Life. This year our wonderful soprano soloist Denise Leigh will be joined by the acclaimed tenor James Edwards to perform a selection of arias and operatic duets. Our talented young cellist Matthijs Broersma will perform the dramatic first movement of Sir Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto.
There is, of course, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture (with live cannon) and the unforgettable performance of Beethoven's Battle Symphony with 193 live cannon, musketfire and fireworks!
The concert finale will embrace all the traditional proms favourites including Jerusalem, Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory, complete with our famous spectacular firework display.
Come along and enjoy an evening of ground-shaking, breath-taking, unforgettable entertainment.
Location
- Please bring your own picnic, but for safety reasons no fires or barbecues are allowed.
- A hearty Hog Roast and a bar will be available.
- Seating and cover is not provided so do bring chairs, tables, picnic blankets and umbrellas.
- No dogs, other than guide dogs, can be admitted.
- Ample free parking is provided.
- Please come early to allow plenty of time for parking.
- Special parking is available for disabled concert-goers.
F.A.Qs & Extra Information
Ticket Information
In association with
Book Online or Information and Booking Line 01432 355416
Adult:
£26 Early Booking Offer before May 1
£28 from May 1
£33 on the day of concert (subject to availability)
Child under 16:
£14
(under 5 years free)
Advance group bookings of 10 or more
qualify for a £2 reduction per ticket.
You'll be pleased to know there is no booking fee.
Buy Tickets Now!
Picnic Hampers
To order a superb picnic hamper for our Althorp Park concert:
click here
About Althorp Park
Althorp has been home to the Spencer family for nearly 500 years, and contains a fascinating variety of pictures, furniture and ceramics, as well as boasting some fine interiors. Like many great country houses, it has benefited from the discriminating and varied collecting of generations of occupants, their marriages and chance provisions.
Althorp's collection of portraits is particularly fine, and justly famous. As a record of a family, and as a record of English portraiture, it is outstanding. The roll-call of names - Rubens, Van Dyck, Reynolds, Gainsborough will be familiar to everyone. But there are numerous rare and beautiful paintings by lesser-known artists which will appeal to casual visitors and connoisseurs alike. In the decorative arts, from carpets to candelabra, there is much which is distinguished.
There has been a house at Althorp since the beginning of the sixteenth century. Sir John Spencer acquired a 300-acre estate around Althorp in 1508 and his grandson, another Sir John, had made Althorp the principal Spencer home by the time of his death in 1586. The house itself is not the product of any one period, but has changed over the years. Its re-modellings naturally show the prevailing taste of the time, woven into a broader synthesis. The true medium for harmony, however, has been the house's continual ownership and occupation by the same family.
Althorp Park official website: www.althorp.com