BACKSTAGE WITH… Pianist Sholto Kynoch
This year marks the 20th anniversary of The Oxford Lieder Festival. Is it very different from when you set it up in 2001?
I recently found one of our first ever brochures and the mission statement in it – about reinvigorating the artform and bringing a festival to Oxford – is fairly similar to what we might write today. Quite a lot of the spirit of the early years, such as the commitment to young artists, is still here, but I don’t think we ever envisaged it turning into such a huge international event.
Oxford is full of venues suitable for chamber-scale recitals. How widely have you spread the net over the years?
At the last count, we’d used 18 venues across the city. These include the Hollywell Music Room, St John the Evangelist Church and the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building on a regular basis, but also quite a few college chapels and also late-night concerts in pub, bars and other interesting spaces such as the Ashmolean Museum and Bodleian Library. This year, however, because we want to maintain social distancing, we are using only St John’s and the Jacqueline du Pré Building. We are, though, exploring with lighting and cabaret-style tables to make it a really lovely, intimate atmosphere.
What inspired this year’s ‘Nature’s Songbook’ theme?
I had originally planned for this to be the theme for the 2022 festival, but on revision I thought it suited this year better.
The only concerts that are not at the two venues above will be at the Botanical Gardens; plus, when I looked at some of the new music we’ve commissioned for this year, some of the composers I’ve lined up are already writing music that is very nature-related – Laurence Crane, for instance, is writing a work inspired by the marine biologist Rachel Carson, and Cheryl Frances-hoad is composing a piece that celebrates the 400th anniversary of the Gardens themselves.
How tricky is it to balance your role as artistic director of the festival with your keenness to perform in it yourself?
I always end up playing a bit more than I really should! But then, it is my yearly opportunity to choose exactly what I want to play, with whom, where and on what pianos. I am getting better at not overloading myself, but it’s always very tempting.