Remembrance Day concert for the Millennium

Victoria Hall MANY memories were sparked off for some of the older members of the audience. Some of the best-loved songs and hits from the time of the Second World War were played in this Remembrance Concert.

It was stirring and moving -- a fitting tribute to a generation who bore the sacrifices of the most cataclysmic war in history.

But it was just not the Second World War that was remembered as both the Great War and conflicts of the past 50 years were touched on in prayer and music.

It was not to celebrate war but to remember the reasons why such terrible prices had to be paid -- and hope that such sacrifice should not be asked for again.

A piece from William Walton opened proceedings after the audience joined in the National Anthem and heard a prayer by the Rev Philip Mason.

The piece, Spitfire, was written for the 1942 film The First of the Few which brought thoughts of the Battle of Britain to mind and included a rousing climax.

Edward Elgar is famous for such sublime music as the Four Seasons but this piece -- The Spirit of England -- was pure patriotism and was sung all over the country in the First World War.

But no popular music of war would be complete without the Dambusters tune, written to celebrate the breaching of the Ruhr Dams in 1943. It was performed with subtlety and panache. The final tune was Vaughan Williams' 1936 composition Dona Nobis Pacem, warning of impending war.

The soloists Mark Wildman, Suzannah Clarke and Michael Greenhalgh performed marvellously supported by the chorus.

For those who still remember the last war, the memories were more acute than for those who did not -- we felt more acutely an empathy and an understanding.