The Malcolm Arnold Festival returns to the composer’s birthplace, Northampton, on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th October 2015 at Royal & Derngate, featuring two major concerts with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Worthing Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the Festival's 10th anniversary, and guest artists including pianists Peter Donohoe and Martin James Bartlett, and conductors Martin Yates, John Gibbons and Hilary Davan Wetton. The Festival will be launched by multi-talented musical stalwart and Arnold fan, Sir Tim Rice.
On the evening of Saturday 17th October there is the Festival's first BBC performance and broadcast to be given by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Martin Yates in four show-stopping Arnold works: the Fair Field Overture, the Philharmonic Concerto, the John Field Fantasy, played by legendary pianist Peter Donohoe, and the towering Symphony No 7. It will be a uniquely powerful and unmissable occasion.
The mighty 7th Symphony, like much of the composer's music, is impossible to categorise; a tour de force for the orchestra and an exhilarating experience for the listener, it features a riotous Irish reel with pounding rhythms, cowbell, tubular bells and ghostly harp.
Arnold called his Fantasy on a theme of John Field “a piano concerto in one movement” in which Field’s seventh Nocturne for piano is subjected to a variety of contrasting treatments, at times with electrifying energy, wit and bravado.
The composer promised that the three-movement Philharmonic Concerto would offer “the glorious sound of a symphony orchestra” and it is also full of Arnold's high-octane multi-coloured invention.
Sunday 18th October is the Festival's special ‘Gesture of Friendship’ day named after Sir Malcolm’s own delightful explanation of what music is all about. Musicians all over the world will be invited to play music as a gesture of friendship. A designated website explains how musicians can get involved.
Sunday evening's concert, entitled ‘Reaching around the Globe’, will feature the Commonwealth Overture, and two performances by BBC Young Musicians of the Year: Jess Gillam as soloist in the Saxophone Concerto and Martin James Bartlett as pianist in Gershwin’s 'Rhapsody in Blue'. Another audience favourite, the Scottish Dances, will be included, and a very rare arrangement by Arnold of a piece by Albeniz. Conductor John Gibbons will be bringing the esteemed Worthing Symphony Orchestra to round off what promises to be a spectacular end to the weekend.
The packed Festival programme also includes a chance to see and hear some of Arnold's less well-known work for the silver screen, performances of the three Sinfoniettas conducted by Hilary Davan Wetton, and the Symphony for Brass, performed by Scandinavian Brass Ensemble, Brasskompaniet.
Other highlights include a performance from regular visitors to the Festival, The Northampton County Youth Orchestra, who will play the Symphony No 2 and the ever-popular Cornish Dances as well as the Roots of Heaven Overture. Doyen of the double bass world, David Heyes, will perform the World Premiere of the Fantasy for Double Bass; a tantalising work that remained unfinished but has now been sympathetically completed by composer, Matthew Taylor.
Other performances taking place include the Double Violin Concerto, Psalm 150, and the rarely performed John Clare Cantata in a new arrangement for choir and string orchestra with orchestral players from Birmingham Conservatoire conducted by Alex Davan Wetton,
A rare performance of Arnold's song cycle ‘Contrasts’ (in a version for tenor and piano) will be sung by the young award-winning tenor James Bowers, and Jenny Dyson leads a programme of instrumental music including the Suite Bourgeoise, Divertimento, Fantasy for flute, and a sparkling newly created ballet to accompany the composer’s Grand Fantasia, performed by dancers from Cecilia Macfarlane’s Dance School.
The Festival, to be launched in style by lyricist and author, Sir Tim Rice, will feature Arnold’s Hoffnung Fanfare for 36 trumpets. "Actually, I’m hoping we’ll have nearer 100!", says Paul Harris, "and I’m delighted that the work will be conducted by Ben Hoffnung, the son of the dedicatee himself." There will also be a performance of one of Arnold's most enduring favourites, 'The Padstow Lifeboat’, performed by the Northampton County Youth Brass Band who will also accompany the massed choirs of Northampton in a performance of the Song of Freedom.
Find details of the complete Festival programme on Concert Diary.