Country delights

2:06pm Thursday 2nd October 2008

AUTUMN arrives at Parkfields Gallery, Ross-on-Wye, on Saturday with the opening of their new exhibition, That Country Feeling.

Faith and hope in a quest for redemption

2:04pm Thursday 2nd October 2008

ANY young child losing his mother in the early 21st century can expect support and sympathy, counselling and his mother’s memory treasured.

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Church hosts tribute to poet Frances Horovitz

1:56pm Thursday 2nd October 2008

TWO of the UK’s best-loved poets, Gillian Clarke and Anne Stevenson, will be in Orcop Church on Saturday for a reading in tribute to their close friend, the poet Frances Horovitz, who died of cancer 25 years ago and is buried in the Churchyard at Orcop.

Fusion for autumn

1:59pm Thursday 2nd October 2008

DAN James and his fusion quartet Be Bop Da Jig are back with an autumn tour, which brings them to Leominster’s Blue Note Cafe on Saturday from 9pm.

Autumn provides a rich tapestry of popular culture

1:53pm Thursday 2nd October 2008

AMONG the highlights of this year’s Cheltenham Festival of Literature, which runs from October 10-19, is a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Man Booker Prize for which a host of Booker winners will premiere new work on BBC Radio 4.

Stunning drama at The Courtyard

1:46pm Thursday 2nd October 2008

AN impressive line-up of drama at The Courtyard this autumn continued last night with a stunning performance of Bryony Lavery’s award-winning play, Frozen.

Stunning drama at The Courtyard

1:36pm Thursday 2nd October 2008

AN impressive line-up of drama at The Courtyard this autumn continued last night with a stunning performance of Bryony Lavery’s award-winning play, Frozen.

The Perfect Tonic at University of Worcester Drama Studio

2:00pm Wednesday 1st October 2008

FOLLOWING a successful world tour, Spike Theatre and Ramesh Meyyappan return to the UK with their new show, Gin & Tonic and Passing Trains, to tour the county this autumn. As part of a select tour, this exciting production will be staged at the University of Worcester’s Drama Studio on Saturday, October 11 .

Flawless virtuosity at The Courtyard

1:16pm Tuesday 30th September 2008

ON Monday evening Hereford Concert Society’s 10th season opened in fine style when its patron, celebrity cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, generously presented a warm-hearted fundraising recital at The Courtyard. The meat of his varied programme was to be found in Cello Sonatas by Debussy and Brahms (No.1), which Lloyd Webber performed with effortless technical mastery, drawing an enormous range of colour and dynamics from his wonderful 1690 Barjansky Stradivarius. Such works are essentially integrated duos, and particular praise must be awarded to the curiously unsung pianist Pamela Chowhan, who met the formidable demands of both sonatas with flawless virtuosity, despite the inability of the Courtyard’s baby grand piano to match the sonorities of the Strad. The programme began with a romanticised rendition of the Adagio in G from Bach’s Cantata BWV 156. Then followed lighter-hearted pieces by Frank Bridge – his Scherzetto, which Lloyd Webber unearthed at the Royal College of Music – and Benjamin Britten. This intelligent juxtaposition illustrated convincingly the influence of master on pupil. The drawback was that we were only given two movements of Britten’s fascinating Sonata, doubtless to make room for a couple of mellifluous favourites: Fauré’s Élégie and Saint-Saens’ forever-gliding Swan. Preceding the Brahms, a local tribute was paid in a beautifully played, if questionable arrangement of one of Elgar’s Sea Pictures, followed by a meditative, vaguely Elgarian nocturne ‘In the half-light’ by Julian’s father William and an old-fashioned sentimental lullaby ‘A Song for Baba’ written by Julian himself. Sparks almost literally flew in the encore: De Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance.

Intense drama and high emotion

1:08pm Tuesday 30th September 2008

POLITICAL corruption, blackmail and fear of discovery – the ingredients for a good juicy scandal have been making us sit up and take notice for years.

New solo exhibition at The Courtyard

12:43pm Thursday 25th September 2008

AFTER representing Herefordshire in the Three Choirs Festival exhibition in 2006, artist Steve Brooks returns to The Courtyard with a solo exhibition, Field of Vision.

Toby to play at iconic club

12:40pm Thursday 25th September 2008

TOBY Parker has packed a lot of music into his 21 years. While he was at Hereford Sixth Form College, he was lead singer of the Myth – the popular Hereford rock band created at Fairfield School.

Black group boycotts 'racist' force

Updated 3:35pm Monday 6th October 2008

The Metropolitan Black Police Association has said it would "actively discourage" new recruits from joining Britain's largest force, claiming it had "a hostile atmosphere where racism is allowed to spread".

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