A GERMAN orchestra will perform a gala concert at the Farnham Maltings on Friday, May 27, to celebrate 25 years of twinning between Farnham and the beautiful town of Andernach in the Rhineland area of Germany.

The award-winning Andernach town orchestra - or Stadtorchester - is one of the leading ensembles in the middle Rhine area and has appeared on television and radio in Germany as well as regularly selling out concerts under the direction of kapellmeister Bertram Kleis.

It will perform a concert of popular music themed around the continent of Africa at the gala concert, including excerpts from Aida, the soundtracks from Out of Africa and The Lion King as well as the jazz piece A Night in Tunisia.

Tickets are available now for £10 at the Maltings box office or online at www.farnhammaltings.com with the concert set to take place between 7.30pm and 10pm.

The modern idea of town twinning was conceived after the Second World War in 1947 and was intended to foster friendship and understanding between different cultures and between former foes as an act of peace and reconciliation.

In Farnham’s case the choice of Andernach arose out of the higher-tier twinning between Mayen-Coblenz Council and Waverley Borough Council; all the towns in Waverley being twinned with towns from that region, for example Cranleigh with Vallendar, Godalming with Mayen and Haslemere with Horb am Neckar.

According to the Farnham and Andernach Twinning Association, the two towns are similar in many ways. The populations are roughly the same, they both contain a castle where an archbishop lived and are both built on ancient pre-Roman settlements.

But as with most things it is their differences which make things interesting. Both contain a river but on very different scales. The Rhine always was one of the main trade routes in Europe and still carries many cargo barges mixed in with the tourist boats doing Rhine tours and boats still form a transport link between villages on the Rhine.

Andernach has many ‘tourist attractions’ including the old council building or Rathaus, the town walls with the old Rhine Gate and the world’s highest cold water geyser with a large crater lake nearby.

A few kilometres downstream of Andernach the Rhine valley narrows from both sides forming the northern part of the romantic Middle Rhine stretch, a haunt of many artists including JMW Turner.

Andernach, with its Edible City project, is bringing nature right back into town. The town council and local volunteers plant containers in open spaces around the town and local people can pick the produce for free, providing a welcome change in the menu for its citizens into the bargain.

As well as performing the concert, from May 26 to 29 the Stadtorchester Andernach musicians, mayor of Andernach, chairman of the council and members of the twinning association from Andernach will be visiting Farnham to celebrate the 25th year since exchanges between the two towns began.

Peter Marriott of the Farnham and Andernach Twinning Association said: “Please feel free to walk up to our visitors and make them feel welcome as they walk around and come and listen to the concert if you can.

“This, more than the political links, is the main purpose of twinning. It is meeting, understanding and making friends with people from a different culture and finding what makes them tick.”