The ninth English Music Festival will be launched by the BBC Concert Orchestra under conductor Martin Yates on Friday 22nd May 2015 at Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire, with the UK première of the overture ‘The New Age’ by Richard Arnell. The programme also includes the early ‘Bucolic Suite’ by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Finzi’s Cello Concerto with soloist Raphael Wallfisch. A lost work by George Butterworth, his ‘Fantasia for Orchestra’, has been completed and orchestrated by Martin Yates and will be given its world première performance. The concert is to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
On Saturday 23rd May, the fine British duo, violinist Rupert Marshall-Luck and pianist Matthew Rickard, will perform a programme of violin sonatas by Frederick Septimus Kelly, Stephen Matthews, and Hubert Parry, in Dorchester Abbey.
The afternoon concert transfers to Radley College, where Peter Cigleris and Martin Cousin will perform a programme of music for clarinet and piano by Dunhill, Hurlstone, Stanford, Vaughan Williams, amongst others.
The same evening, the Elysian Singers will perform an evocative celebration of 20th century English choral music including works by Howells, Finzi, Naylor, Bantock, Harris and Walton, in a programme entitled ‘The House of the Mind’ in Dorchester Abbey.
Following this, contemporary composer and pianist, Lionel Sainsbury, will host his own late-evening showcase where he will introduce and perform some of his own easily accessible and popular works which feature on his forthcoming CD, ‘Andalusian Fantasy’.
At Radley College on Sunday 24th May, The Villiers Quartet, who recently received glowing reviews for their recording of quartets by Robert Still on the Naxos label, will perform a themed programme revolving around the year 1916, to include works by William Sterndale Bennett, Butterworth and Delius.
Always a popular venue, the Festival transfers to the idyllic surroundings of Sutton Courtenay Church for Sunday’s afternoon concert where The Albion Singers are to perform a glorious programme dedicated to the exploration of the songs of the British Isles including popular favourites such as ‘Greensleeves’, ‘Danny Boy’, and ‘The Skye Boat Song’.
Regular visitors to the Festival, the Orchestra of St Paul’s under their conductor Ben Palmer, will perform three works entitled ‘Nonet’ by Stanford, Bax and Coleridge-Taylor, and Britten’s Sinfonietta in Dorchester Abbey the same evening.
Following this, the New Foxtrot Serenaders make a welcome return to the Festival with a late-evening programme entitled ‘When they sound the last all-clear: The British wartime popular song’, where audience participation is welcome.
Monday 25th May, by way of contrast, will find early music group, Horologe in Dorchester Abbey to perform instrumental music and tales of love and abandonment from 18th century Britain for voice, harpsichord and viola da gamba in a programme entitled '101 Liaisons'.
Peter Fisher’s versatile Chamber Ensemble of London will be visiting the Festival at Radley College, following their successful recording on EM Records entitled ‘Over Hill, Over Dale’, to bring a delightful programme of pieces by favourite composers including Ireland, Purcell, Delius, Arne and Britten, as well as some more unusual works.
The final concert in Dorchester Abbey will welcome Symphonia Academica, Bedfordshire's leading Chamber Orchestra, in a programme to include works by Boughton, Milford, Finzi and Holst together with Butterworth’s songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’, sung by popular baritone, Roderick Williams, reprising his well-received performance of this work at last year’s BBC ‘Proms’.
A number of informative talks complete the programme. A convenient mini-bus transfer is available to/from Didcot station, Dorchester-on-Thames and other Festival venues.
Tickets are available now via the website, and on the door subject to availability. For further information and to see the full programme, visit: www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk