Fighter Command and the Battle for Britain Premiere 19/20/26 September 2015
Sponsor feedback
The following is just a sample of the comments we received from our project sponsors.
The following is just a sample of the comments we received from our project sponsors.
The composition and promenade performances of ‘Fighter Command and the Battle for Britain’ were spectacular. The composition brought the important historical narrative of Bentley Priory and its role during the Battle of Britain to life, in a thoughtful, sensitive and incredibly moving way.
‘Never in the field of human conflict’ performed in the Rotunda was breath-taking. As I attended rehearsals and performances, I had the honour of listening to this piece performed on a number of occasions, and it never failed to spark an emotive response – of great sadness and of immense gratitude to the sacrifice made by nearly 3,000 young men. The clever positioning of the choir around the gallery – so that the audience was centrally placed – encouraged the audience to look at the artefacts on display whilst the choir sang. Seeing the portraits of some of ‘The Few’ that were being acknowledged in the piece, whilst it was sung, was incredibly moving.
Dowding admitted that he could not surpass Churchill’s eloquent words that ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’, and it was perhaps an artistic risk to include this famous acknowledgement in the composition, but sang a capella by the choir in an exhibition gallery full of aircrew artefacts and portraits, it felt like the ghosts of the aircrew were present in the room and I do not think I saw a dry eye of audience members whilst this was sung.
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It was also a privilege to see the choral composition emerge and develop, as the composers spent time in the Museum and did their own research. The commitment to historical accuracy was commendable – with the composers even contacting veterans to verify the language used within The Filter Room. The composition far surpassed any expectation.
It was a pleasure working with Tonic Choir and members of the school choirs and youth choir – but an even greater pleasure seeing them working together to produce an inspiring inter-generational choral performance.
We had overwhelming feedback from audience members – including those who enjoyed it so much the first performance that they snuck in to see it performed again!
The repeated message from audience members was that they had been incredibly moved by the composition and felt that as audience members they had been part of something quite special. |