Every year, the English Music Festival
seems to become increasingly successful, attracting larger audiences
(and from farther afield
– this year we had two audience members who had both travelled
to us from Australia), and with ever-higher standards of performance.
There was a real buzz about this year’s Festival – an almost
tangible atmosphere of excitement and anticipation, that was also
evident from the animated discussions that took place in local
hostelries and at the box office as audiences gathered for our
events.
The Fourth EMF opened, unusually, on a Thursday evening, with a
free concert – a piano recital of Rawsthorne’s Four
Pieces, Lennox Berkeley’s Six
Interludes and the substantial Ferguson Sonata. Radley’s
own Anthony Williams performed with virtuosity and aplomb in the
Silk Hall.
The next day, Friday 28 May, we were yet again lucky with the
weather for our Drinks Reception in the Manor House. EMF Friends
were joined by artists, press and Vice-Presidents and enjoyed champagne,
canapés and conversation in the sun in the Broadbents’ beautiful
and extensive gardens.
Back in the Abbey, the main evening concert (our flagship event)
featured the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Gavin Sutherland.
A warm introduction by Revd. Sue Booys and few words of welcome
from myself preceded Parry’s Jerusalem (in
accordance with EMF tradition!). The programme also included the
first performance for over a century of Quilter’s Serenade,
Moeran’s evocative Lonely
Waters, and Montague Phillips’s First
Piano Concerto, played as effervescently as always by David
Owen Norris. The highlight of the concert was the world première
of York Bowen’s First Symphony, written whilst the composer was
still a student at the Royal Academy of Music. The audience response
to this unaccountably overlooked work was overwhelming, and Festival
audiences left exhilarated, and looking forward to the next day's
music-making.
The Saturday morning recital, given by the violinist Rupert Luck
and pianist Matthew Rickard, was especially exciting, including,
as it did, the world premières of Violin Sonatas by Arthur
Bliss and Henry Walford Davies, both of which have languished in
manuscript form for almost one hundred years. The concert concluded
with York Bowen’s gorgeous Violin Sonata. The performance was outstanding,
with Luck playing with searing passion and intensity, sympathetically
accompanied by Rickard, and the large audience was tremendously
impressed.
Over to Radley’s Silk Hall for the afternoon concert, given by
the skillful and dynamic Orchestra of St Paul’s, conducted by Ben
Palmer. The programme comprised Purcell’s Incidental
Music to ‘Abdelazar’, Armstrong Gibbs’s Threnody,
Elgar’s Elegy, Warlock’s Capriol
Suite and the world première of Paul Carr’s A
Gentle Music, which I was extremely flattered to have dedicated
to me.
Barry Marsh’s ensuing talk on E.J. Moeran, back in the Abbey Guest
House at Dorchester, was packed out – and rightly, too, as
it was both a fascinating and moving lecture.
The evening concert, in the Abbey, was given by the City of London
Choir, conducted by Hilary Davan Wetton, and this staged a work
which it has been a long-held ambition of mine to present: Holst’s The
Coming of Christ. The first half included choral works by
Wood, Pearsall, Elgar, Stanford, Finzi and Bridge, and organ pieces
by Howells and Britten. The Coming of Christ, in the second half,
was an intriguing work, and well-received.
This was followed by the first of our late-evening concerts, which
are always highly atmospheric: there is something very special
about the sense of warm enclosure that results from the contrast
of the darkness outside and the gently-lit interior of the Abbey.
Oxford Liedertafel excelled themselves this year, in a wonderfully
varied programme of a cappella music, with composers ranging from
Byrd to Vaughan Williams. Quite magical.
Sunday started at Radley College, with a concert by the Tippett
Quartet of Tovey, Arnell and Britten string quartets, and the launch
of their new CD. We returned to The Church of All Saints at Sutton
Courteney
– a venue we’ve not been able to use for the past couple
of years – for the afternoon concert, given by the Elysian
Singers under their conductor, Sam Laughton. The concert was sold-out,
and it was with difficulty that I found a small area of floor space
to squeeze into! The programme included pieces by Britten, Elgar
and Vaughan Williams, as well as Stanford’s much-loved The Blue Bird,
and Howells’s Requiem.
I found the latter – which combines a devotional directness
of expression with an emotional punch, especially moving in that
particular setting, with the sun pouring through the windows of
the ancient and beautiful church, and the bird song drifting in
to combine with the glorious Howells.
Back over to Dorchester for Neil Williams’s talk on Holst, and
the evening concert, again back in the Abbey. The first half was
Delius’s incidental music to the Flecker play, Hassan,
with a précis specially written and read by Radio 3 presenter
Paul Guinery. The blood-thirsty story rather shocked some members
of the audience, but the music was superb under the assured directorship
of George Vass. The second half consisted of a work that has intense
significance for me, Holst’s opera Sāvitri – this,
again, is a piece that I have long had an ambition to stage. The
performance (semi-staged) was a dramatic one, with atmospheric
costumes and lighting, whilst the performers – Janice Watson,
David Wilson-Johnson and Mark Chaundy – sang with staggering
power and conviction, and did full justice to what is undoubtedly
one of the greatest operas of the twentieth century.
A very different concert ensued, with the mediaeval band Joglaresa
presenting traditional and early songs. It was a fascinating programme,
with all works based around the supernatural, and, continuing the
themes of love and death initiated in Hassan and Sāvitri,
made the perfect conclusion to an emotional evening.
The final day was the most frantic, with rehearsals for the evening’s
‘Come and Sing’ event interspersed with the concerts – all
taking place in the Abbey. The first event featured the Syred Consort,
directed by Ben Palmer. The group was in superb voice and their
recital included such gems as Finzi’s Magnificat,
Ireland’s Five Part-Songs and
little-known works by Vaughan Williams.
A large crowd congregated for the afternoon concert by the Jaguar
(Coventry) Band. This was a revelation to many, as it highlighted
the expressive power of a medium with which not all of our audience
members were familiar. Also evident was the skill of composers
such as Holst, Vaughan Williams and Bantock in writing for these
forces. Percy Fletcher’s Epic
Symphonyis a fiendishly difficult work, and gave the band
the opportunity for true showmanship. I was particularly thrilled
to hear Holst’s Suites for Brass Band live for the first time – especially
in such a fantastic performance, and the Band appeared most gratified
to perform in what they described as a ‘magnificent venue’.
After Robin Wilson’s insightful talk on Sullivan (‘without
Gilbert’!), the final concert of this year’s EMF was the ‘Come
and Sing’ event. EMF Vice-President Brian Kay conducted a choir
comprising enthusiastic Festival-goers, and elicited a warm response.
The programme opened with Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs,
with soloist David Wilson-Johnson, who then went on to perform
Somervell’s powerful song-cycle Maud,
with pianist David Owen Norris. The second half was Elgar’s memorably
tuneful Scenes from the Bavarian
Highlands, and the Festival concluded with kind words from
EMF Vice-President Paul Guinery.
A party for Friends and helpers in the Abbey Guest House rounded
off the triumphant Fourth English Music Festival, and left me with
an aching hole not to be filled until next year’s EMF!
EM MARSHALL · FOUNDER-DIRECTOR