Southwell Music Festival, 25-29 August 2016
The third Southwell Music Festival was held over the Bank Holiday weekend 25-29 October. The Festivals are the brain-child of Founder and Director Marcus Farnsworth, who also performs as baritone singer and conductor. I first encountered him at the Oxford Lieder Festival in 2008, where, as a new graduate he sang for ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ with pianist Libby Burgess who is now Southwell Festival’s Resident Pianist. This was an amazing five days. Centred on Southwell’s celebrated Minster, the musical events contained thirty concerts of which some were repeats; fifteen of these were free. The spirit of the Festival pervaded the whole town with a series of exhibitions and other events including Southwell Artists Open Studios, a biennial event. A stroke of genius bringing performers and audiences together in common purpose was the offer of the lavish programme booklet, edited by Ruth Massey and Chris Senior, free, with a suggested donation of five pounds.
The concerts, held in the Minster itself and in the State Room of the nearby Archbishop of York’s Palace covered everything from oratorio, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, the centrepiece of the Festival, to barber’s shop quartet supplemented by two ladies in close harmony singing an outrageous number by Victoria Wood.
I report on the only six events I was able to attend. On the Thursday evening Farnworth himself gave the first of two performances of the posthumously published collection of Schubert songs, known as Schwanengesang. with pianist James Bailieu. This was a very sensitive and serious performance, improving in warmth for the six Heine settings which form a more coherent group than the first seven Rellstab poems. The pianist did a marvellous job in matching the mood of the singer in spite of the rather harsh tone of the Fazioli piano
A programme Beginnings and Endings received two performances. It contained two works: Beethoven’s Septet in E flat major and Richard Strauss’ Metamorphosen. The Beethoven was an enjoyable performance in which the individual instruments doing their own thing performed brilliantly. What was lacking was firm leadership pulling the whole thing together. On the other hand, the Strauss was an intense experience demanding full concentration. The twenty-three strings, violins and violas standing, under the firm but unobtrusive control of violinist Jamie Campbell, gave a wonderful interpretation of the evolving sound patterns of this rarely performed work. One of the highlights of the Festival.
Saturday lunchtime was given to an hour-long recital by Nottingham Young Musician of the Year, 2015, clarinettist Matt Glendening. This talented performer played works by Brahms. Arthur Benjamin, Schumann, Weiner and Poulenc. Ill-advisedly, he opened with an isolated movement from the Brahms Sonata no. 1 but this was followed by Le Tombeau de Ravel by Benjamin, which caught our attention which was held to the end of the recital. Schumann’s Fantasiestücke received a particularly attractive performance Glendening is clearly ready for the next stage of his professional career development.
The Dream of Gerontius, which was the central work of the Festival was given in the main part of the Minster by the considerable forces of the thirty-nine Southwell Festival Voices and the fifty-eight-piece Festival Orchestra with soloist’s tenor David Butt Philip as Gerontius and his Soul, soprano Anna Stéphany as the Angel and bass David Soar as the Priest. The conductor was Marcus Farnsworth in total control of the performance. The resulting glorious sound filled the Minster with its perfect, clear acoustics. Soar’s voice, heard from the pulpit was especially effective. The result was a most moving experience even if one did not share the sentiments of the work. The standing ovation was well merited, even if stimulated largely by the hardness of our chairs
The Sunday, our last day of attendance, was marked by two events. The first, the third performance of Classical with a Twist was held in an upstairs room in Southwell’s Old Theatre Dei opened with an exquisite rendering of Haydn’s Joke String Quartet. There followed a selection of close harmony arrangements given by Festival Voices Unleashed a barber shop quartet supplemented by sopranos Eleanor Gregory and Amy Wood, ending with the outrageous Let’s do it of Victoria Wood. Following this there was a delicious light lunch served on plates at our seats before the event concluded with the Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone by Francis Poulenc, not entirely a balanced trio.
Our final concert was entitled Henry Purcell: the eternal Inspiration, a misleading title, since the only unadulterated Purcell was Fantasia upon one note which opened the programme, the remainder being works by modern composers. There followed two settings of Beaudelaire poems by Mark Anthony Turnage sung by Alison Rose. The second of these L’Invitation au Voyage came nowhere near the French settings by Duparc and others. Then came three songs by Purcell arranged by Britten. One would have preferred the original. All the songs were, nevertheless, beautifully sung, with demure presence, by Alison Rose, with again sensitive playing by pianist James Baillieu with strings. But then came a totally unexpected sensation. Catch by Thomas Adés is an immensely complex work for Piano Trio and peripatetic Clarinet, fiendishly difficult to play but immediately approachable for the audience. The composer continues to grow in one’s estimation. It was given by Joseph Shiner, clarinet, Hannah Dawson, violin, Matthew Huber, cello and James Baillieu, piano. Catch was followed by Oliver Knussen, Upon one note – after Henry Purcell, a pale imitation of the original. After the interval, the position one had hoped would have been reserved for more Purcell was usurped by a string quartet by Benjamin Britten.
The Southwell Festival deserves a place among the national summer festivals. The problem is that it is so popular locally that most events are sold out very early. The unique atmosphere of the Minster and related buildings means that seating is limited, hence the need for multiple performances. There were many concerts I was not able to attend. Of those I did, the enduring memories are: Strauss, Metamorphosen, Arthur Benjamin, Le Tombeau de Ravel played by Matt Glendening, The Dream of Gerontius, Thomas Adés, Catch and last and least Victoria Wood.
The concerts, held in the Minster itself and in the State Room of the nearby Archbishop of York’s Palace covered everything from oratorio, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, the centrepiece of the Festival, to barber’s shop quartet supplemented by two ladies in close harmony singing an outrageous number by Victoria Wood.
I report on the only six events I was able to attend. On the Thursday evening Farnworth himself gave the first of two performances of the posthumously published collection of Schubert songs, known as Schwanengesang. with pianist James Bailieu. This was a very sensitive and serious performance, improving in warmth for the six Heine settings which form a more coherent group than the first seven Rellstab poems. The pianist did a marvellous job in matching the mood of the singer in spite of the rather harsh tone of the Fazioli piano
A programme Beginnings and Endings received two performances. It contained two works: Beethoven’s Septet in E flat major and Richard Strauss’ Metamorphosen. The Beethoven was an enjoyable performance in which the individual instruments doing their own thing performed brilliantly. What was lacking was firm leadership pulling the whole thing together. On the other hand, the Strauss was an intense experience demanding full concentration. The twenty-three strings, violins and violas standing, under the firm but unobtrusive control of violinist Jamie Campbell, gave a wonderful interpretation of the evolving sound patterns of this rarely performed work. One of the highlights of the Festival.
Saturday lunchtime was given to an hour-long recital by Nottingham Young Musician of the Year, 2015, clarinettist Matt Glendening. This talented performer played works by Brahms. Arthur Benjamin, Schumann, Weiner and Poulenc. Ill-advisedly, he opened with an isolated movement from the Brahms Sonata no. 1 but this was followed by Le Tombeau de Ravel by Benjamin, which caught our attention which was held to the end of the recital. Schumann’s Fantasiestücke received a particularly attractive performance Glendening is clearly ready for the next stage of his professional career development.
The Dream of Gerontius, which was the central work of the Festival was given in the main part of the Minster by the considerable forces of the thirty-nine Southwell Festival Voices and the fifty-eight-piece Festival Orchestra with soloist’s tenor David Butt Philip as Gerontius and his Soul, soprano Anna Stéphany as the Angel and bass David Soar as the Priest. The conductor was Marcus Farnsworth in total control of the performance. The resulting glorious sound filled the Minster with its perfect, clear acoustics. Soar’s voice, heard from the pulpit was especially effective. The result was a most moving experience even if one did not share the sentiments of the work. The standing ovation was well merited, even if stimulated largely by the hardness of our chairs
The Sunday, our last day of attendance, was marked by two events. The first, the third performance of Classical with a Twist was held in an upstairs room in Southwell’s Old Theatre Dei opened with an exquisite rendering of Haydn’s Joke String Quartet. There followed a selection of close harmony arrangements given by Festival Voices Unleashed a barber shop quartet supplemented by sopranos Eleanor Gregory and Amy Wood, ending with the outrageous Let’s do it of Victoria Wood. Following this there was a delicious light lunch served on plates at our seats before the event concluded with the Sonata for Horn, Trumpet and Trombone by Francis Poulenc, not entirely a balanced trio.
Our final concert was entitled Henry Purcell: the eternal Inspiration, a misleading title, since the only unadulterated Purcell was Fantasia upon one note which opened the programme, the remainder being works by modern composers. There followed two settings of Beaudelaire poems by Mark Anthony Turnage sung by Alison Rose. The second of these L’Invitation au Voyage came nowhere near the French settings by Duparc and others. Then came three songs by Purcell arranged by Britten. One would have preferred the original. All the songs were, nevertheless, beautifully sung, with demure presence, by Alison Rose, with again sensitive playing by pianist James Baillieu with strings. But then came a totally unexpected sensation. Catch by Thomas Adés is an immensely complex work for Piano Trio and peripatetic Clarinet, fiendishly difficult to play but immediately approachable for the audience. The composer continues to grow in one’s estimation. It was given by Joseph Shiner, clarinet, Hannah Dawson, violin, Matthew Huber, cello and James Baillieu, piano. Catch was followed by Oliver Knussen, Upon one note – after Henry Purcell, a pale imitation of the original. After the interval, the position one had hoped would have been reserved for more Purcell was usurped by a string quartet by Benjamin Britten.
The Southwell Festival deserves a place among the national summer festivals. The problem is that it is so popular locally that most events are sold out very early. The unique atmosphere of the Minster and related buildings means that seating is limited, hence the need for multiple performances. There were many concerts I was not able to attend. Of those I did, the enduring memories are: Strauss, Metamorphosen, Arthur Benjamin, Le Tombeau de Ravel played by Matt Glendening, The Dream of Gerontius, Thomas Adés, Catch and last and least Victoria Wood.