MORE GREAT FESTIVALS…
Brighton Festival
When: 5-27 May
Where: Brighton, Sussex
Tel: +44 (0)1273 709709 Web: www.brightonfestival.org
Brighton’s inventive festival always likes to find a new slant. Four actors join the Heath Quartet for director Calixto Bieito’s The String Quartet’s Guide to Sex and Anxiety; pianist Cédric Tiberghien brings Paul Kildea’s novel Chopin’s Piano: A Journey through Romanticism to life; while The Arms of Sleep multimedia experience proposes a ten-hour overnight choral odyssey with beds provided for the audience.
HIGHLIGHTS:
6 May Handel Dixit Dominus,
Bach, Scarlatti; Vox Luminis/
Lionel Bringuier
12 May Britten War Requiem; Brighton Festival Chorus, Orchestre de Picardie, Britten Sinfonia/arie van Beek
17 May Chopin’s Piano; Chopin Preludes Op. 28; Cédric Tiberghien (piano),
Paul Kildea (narrator)
Chipping Campden Festival
When: 12-26 May
Where: Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire
Tel: +44 (0)1386 849018 Web: www.campdenmusicfestival.co.uk
There may be Bach’s Mass in B minor from Tenebrae and a Chipping Camden debut for The Jerusalem Quartet, but acoustically-blest St John’s Church is awash with world-class pianists this year. Festival president Paul Lewis plays a different Mozart concerto in each of three Academy Orchestra concerts, while Imogen Cooper, Stephen Hough and Steven Osborne (see p34) perform a wide selection of works, ranging from Beethoven to Berg.
HIGHLIGHTS:
15 May Debussy, Berg, Ravel, Prokofiev; Steven Osborne (piano)
17 May JS Bach Mass in B minor; Tenebrae, Academy of Ancient Music/ Nigel Short
25 May Schubert Winterreise; Christopher Maltman (baritone),
Julius Drake (piano).
Stour Music
When: 22 June – 1 July
Where: All Saints’ Church, Boughton Aluph, East Kent Tel: +44 (0)1227 769075 Web: www.stourmusic.org.uk
Situated in the Kent countryside, the medieval church of All Saints’, Boughton Aluph, has drawn pilgrims for centuries, but in June they’re likely to be among the 3,000 musical ones f locking to the early music festival that countertenor Alfred Deller established just over half a century ago. His son Mark, the current festival director, conducts the closing concert of Purcell’s King Arthur, the English Concert having earlier obliged with a Suite from The Fairy Queen.
HIGHLIGHTS:
24 June Purcell, Corelli, JS Bach, Handel; The English Concert/ Christopher Bucknall
29 June Josquin, Lassus, Janequin, Schütz; The King’s Singers
30 June Monteverdi, Castello, Grandi; The Gonzaga Band/steven Devine
Cheltenham Festival
When: 4-15July Where: Cheltenham, Gloucestershire Tel: +44 (0)1242 850270 Web: www.cheltenhamfestivals.com Who needs a festival when its prequel – Syde Manor Bach Weekend – promises mezzo Sarah Connolly and harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani? Erstwhile director Meurig Bowen’s farewell programme at Cheltenham Festival supplies the answer. With the Hallé and Bernstein’s Candide from Iford, Berlioz’s ear-filling Requiem and premieres aplenty, incoming director Alison Balsom has a tough act to follow.
HIGHLIGHTS:
4 July Strauss songs and arias,
Elgar Symphony No. 1; Louise Alder, Hallé Orchestra/sir Mark Elder
8 July Haydn Harmoniemesse;
Choir & Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/sir András Schi
12 July Bernstein Candide; Iford Arts/ Oliver Gooch
St Endellion Festival When: 31 July – 10 August
Where: St Endellion, North Cornwall Tel: +44 (0)1208 880298
Web: www.endellionfestivals.org.uk
Tenor Mark Padmore has steered St Endellion’s Summer Festival for a decade and he’s at the helm for its 60th anniversary. The celebration includes Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust and assorted French fare such as Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. The festival opens with Elgar’s The Music Makers.
HIGHLIGHTS:
4 & 6 August Verdi Te Deum, Mozart Requiem; Sophie Bevan (soprano), Festival Orchestra/ryan Wigglesworth 8 August Berlioz La Damnation de Faust; Peter Hoare (Faust), Festival Chorus & Orchestra/wigglesworth
9 August Mahler Symphony No. 4,
Ravel; Festival Orchestra/wigglesworth
Dartington International Summer School When: 28 July – 25 August
Where: Totnes, Devon
Tel: +44 (0)1803 847080
Web: dartington.org/summer-school
A summer school that can number Stravinsky, Nono and Elliott Carter among past teachers is a bit special. Pianist Joanna Macgregor, the current director, describes it as ‘music school by day and concert hall by night’. This year’s festival will be a four-week musical cocktail shaking Bolivian sacred music and a taste of Harlem.
HIGHLIGHTS:
29 July Fire Burning in Snow; Ex Cathedra/je rey Skidmore
29 July Grounds & Chaconnes; Joanna Macgregor (piano)
24 August Verdi Requiem; Dartington Choir & Festival Orchestra/lee Reynolds