Sunday 16 May
Parish Mass
Pre-Festival Event
with Schola Cantorum, Ibstock Place School
10am St Michael's
free
James Bartlett Mass for Prague
Max Wolhberg Yiheyu L'ratson (Psalm 19 v14)
The Schola Cantorum, top choir at Ibstock Place School, will perform a Mass setting by Director of Music, James Bartlett, written for the choir on their 2019 tour to Prague. The composition draws on influences, motifs and quotations from sources as diverse as Smetana’s Vltava and the IPS school song.- Monday 17 May
Cadilly
by Stephen Dodgson - Opening Concert
with the Magnard Ensemble
Singers tbc
James Day conductor
6pm 8pm St Mary's
programme
Ralph Vaughan Williams Ten Blake Songs
Stephen Dodgson Gypsy Songs
Stephen Dodgson Cadilly
notes / bio
Stephen Dodgson’s short opera Cadilly is based on a story from W. H. Barrett’s Tales from the Fens, with libretto by David Reynolds. The story tells the tale of the promiscuous protagonist Anna Marie Cadilly’s escape from the gaol with the help of her crafty family and simpleton Silly Billy, the finest skater in the fens. Originally set for the unusual forces of six soloists, chorus and wind quintet, this concert version of the piece is performed by four singers and wind quintet.
Cadilly is preceded by two sets of English songs for voice and winds. Gypsy Songs are settings of four Jacobean poems by Ben Johnson, commissioned as a wedding gift by George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham. Written for the 1958 film “The Vision of William Blake”, and hailed by Grove Music as "a masterpiece of economy and precision", Ten Blake Songs was one of the last compositions of Vaughan Williams.
Since 2012 the Magnard Ensemble has built a reputation for delivering both high quality concert performances and dynamic educational projects. The Ensemble made their international debut at the Culture & Convention Centre Lucerne, Switzerland in January 2017 and have appeared at venues such as Wigmore Hall and St Martin-in-the-Fields, as well as festivals and concert societies nationwide.
The players all follow their own professional performing careers, appearing as soloists, chamber musicians and with orchestras including London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, the BBC orchestras, and major UK opera orchestras.
photo ©Benjamin Ealovega
Supported by The Stephen Dodgson Trust
- Tuesday 18 May
programme
WA Mozart, arr. Jonathan Scott Overture to ‘The Marriage of Figaro’
William Walton Three pieces from ‘Richard III’ March; Elegy; Scherzetto
GF Handel Four pieces for the stage: March from ‘Scipio’, arr. Taylor, Minuet from ‘Berenice’, arr. Taylor, Where’er you walk from ‘Semele’, arr. P. Berg, Final Chorus from ‘Ariodante’, arr. Taylor
Richard Wagner, arr. Edwin Lemare Overture to ‘Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’
Marcel Dupré Two movements from the Passion Symphony
notes / bio
The majority of the music in this programme has been arranged for organ from vocal and orchestral works composed for the operatic stage, with the exception of the Walton (for film) and the Dupré – an original organ work. Mozart’s Overture to ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ opens the programme with music which is instantly alive and exciting, despite the restrained dynamics. Walton’s charming music for Richard III is perhaps less well known, but the evergreen Handel items will certainly be more familiar. Wagner’s Die Meistersinger overture makes an excellent organ piece, especially as arranged by Edwin Lemare – one of the most successful organist-composers of his generation. He may have had a larger instrument than the organ at St Michael’s in mind when arranging this, but it works very well indeed on the instrument. Whilst not written for the stage, Dupré’s Passion Symphony contains some of the most dramatic music written for the organ. The ebullient and powerful Resurrection movement provides the ideal foil to the preceding Crucifixion – a harrowing portrayal of Christ’s suffering and death on the cross.
Philip Berg studied the organ at the Royal College of Music under Richard Popplewell. He was Assistant Director and then Director of Music at St. Paul's School, for 32 years. As organist he has performed at many different venues, including the cathedrals of St Paul’s, Worcester, Inverness, Westminster Abbey, Chartres, and Brandenburg Dom.
programme
W A Mozart Sonata in B flat Major K.454
Richard Strauss (arr Prihoda) Rosenkavalier Waltzes
Igor Stravinsky Divertimento from The Fairy’s Kissnotes/bio
This programme for violin and piano presents a trajectory through music history connecting three foremost composers for the stage. Stravinsky’s Divertimento is taken from his ballet ‘The Fairy’s Kiss’, the tale of the boy who is doomed by the kiss of the ‘Ice-Maiden’, and is musically an homage to Tchaikovsky. The waltzes from Richard Strauss’ opera Der Rosenkavalier, arranged by violinist Vasa Prihoda, are redolent of the great Viennese waltzes by Johann Strauss II ‘The Waltz King’, although it is important to note that the two were not related. Strauss, Stravinsky and indeed Tchaikovsky were legendary composers for the stage, but in their minds throughout their work is perhaps the most exceptional operatic composer of all, Mozart. The Sonata in B flat K454 is one of his greatest works for violin and piano. It exhibits total mastery of melodic writing, especially in the slow movement, which is essentially an aria for two instruments.
Henry and John Paul’s recitals have been anticipated events of the Barnes Music Festival for several years. Henry is equally at home in Barnes, being the Director of Music at St Mary’s and also having been born and raised here, as he is on the concert platforms of the world. JP is a winner of 19 prizes at international competitions and maintains a busy career of performing and teaching around the UK and internationally.
- Wednesday 19 May
Albion Quartet
with Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Emma Parker, violin
Ann Beilby, viola, Nathaniel Boyd cello
6pm 8pm St Mary's
programme
Felix Mendelssohn Capriccio from Four Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 81 No. 3
Freya Waley-Cohen String Quartet ‘Dust’
Franz Schubert String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, ‘Death and the Maiden’, D. 810
notes / bio
Mendelssohn is a composer whose music is inextricably linked to the theatre, primarily through the incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream. In this programme he is represented by a short, playful piece for string quartet.
Dust was written by Freya Waley-Cohen, sister of the group’s first violin, Tamsin. “While writing this quartet I was thinking about the artist Charlotte Salomon, as well as David Foenkinos’ book about her, titled ‘Charlotte’. Threads of thoughts and ideas I found in her ‘Leben? oder Theater’ became interwoven with my thoughts while writing this quartet, particularly the way Foenkinos describes parts of her life as becoming subsumed as if in a daydream, as well as her dry and strange wit.”
Schubert, like Mendelssohn, wrote a large body of work for the theatre. His great 'Death and The Maiden' String Quartet, with its grand gestures and high drama is ideally suited to the theatrical world. He first composed 'Death and the Maiden' as a song in 1817, inspired by a poem of the same name by Matthias Claudius. The poem draws on both the 19th-century fascination with Gothic horror stories and a desire to find an acceptance of mortality.
Formed in 2016, the Albion Quartet brings together four of the UK’s exceptional young string players who are establishing themselves rapidly on the international stage. Recent debuts include the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, the Wigmore Hall and Town Hall/Symphony Hall Birmingham. Their fourth recording with Signum has just been released to critical acclaim.
Thursday 20 May
programme
Jan Koetsier Brass Quintet
Anton Bruckner arr. Akugbo Christus Factus Est
Jean-Philippe Rameau arr. Taillard Overture to Dardanus
WA Mozart arr. Taillard Aria of the Queen of the Night
Gioachino Rossini arr. Taillard Largo al Factotum
Leonard Bernstein arr. Gale West Side Story
bio
A “thrilling young ensemble at the start of what is sure to be a major international career” (Great Birmingham Brass Fest), Connaught Brass are quickly making a name for themselves as a fresh talent in the chamber music world. Already set to perform at London’s Wigmore Hall and in the Lucerne Festival Debut Series, the ensemble’s ability to manipulate and unify sound earned them 1st Prize in the Inaugural Philip Jones International Brass Ensemble Competition 2019. Vibrant, spirited and bold, Connaught Brass place emphasis on their friendship with one another to showcase their individual musical personalities within a unique collective sound.
From Greek Drama to Modernity
A Recital-lecture with Marc Jean-Bernard, guitar
6pm 8pm St Mary's
programme
Robert de Visée Overture *
Jean Baptiste Lully Overture *
Henry Purcell If Love's a Sweet Passion&Dance*
Jean Philippe Rameau: Menuet (from Platée)*
Fernando Sor Variations on a Theme by Mozart
Napoléon Coste Divertissement sur Lucia de Lammermoor
Míkis Teodorákis Epitaphios IV*
Jean-Yves Bosseur Erik in the Box (Written for the Barnes Music Festival, World Première)
Francisco Tárrega Marcha dal Tannhäuser
Richard Wagner March (from Tannhäuser)
Erik Satie: Parade and Ragtime du Paquebot*
Ernesto Cordero El Cumbancherito
Hans Werner Henze Drei Märchenbilder
Manuel de Falla The Miller’s Dance
*Transcriptions for solo guitar
notes / bio
Marc Jean-Bernard, classical guitarist, musicologist and philosopher, will explore in his illustrated recital-lecture the relation between Music and Drama.Performances associating drama, music and dance have delighted audiences throughout the ages. Starting with the Greek musical features of the lyrical and tragical ‘ethos’ revisited by the genius of Teodorákis, we will explore the theme of Music and Theatre through Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Neoclassical pieces of musical significance. Finally, as is now a tradition, Marc will perform a specially commissioned piece – a World Premiere – by French composer Jean-Yves Bosseur, an homage to Erik Satie.
Shaped by masters such as Oscar Cáceres and philosophers such as Jankélévitch and Bouveresse, Marc Jean-Bernard recorded the work of Latin American and Caribbean composers such as Joaquín Rodrigo, Carlos Vázquez Mario Gómez-Viñes and Edmundo Vásquez. He held classical guitar positions in various Conservatoires in the Paris region and published several albums for classical French labels. Since the 1990s Marc has enjoyed conducting the works of composers as diverse as Mozart, Debussy, Rodrigo, Respighi, Castelnuovo Tedesco and Hans Werner Henze. Marc’s solo recitals and concert lectures always include new compositions dedicated to him.
- Friday 21 May
The Soldier's Tale
Music by Igor Stravinsky
Libretto by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz
Brutus Green narratorBarnes Festival Orchestra
James Day conductor
6pm 8pm St Mary's
notes / bio
Based on a Russian folk tale about a soldier, who trades his fiddle – and ultimately his soul – with the devil in return for wealth, Stravinsky’s work is “to be read, played and danced”. Its musical language is unique, with jazz playing a big part, colourful and varied. The score is a marvel of economy and originality, preceding the large ballet orchestra of The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring.In this festival’s special concert the Barnes Festival Orchestra takes centre stage for the first time in the history of the festival. In the shape of a small chamber ensemble, they are led by Artistic Director, James Day.Brutus Green, the local vicar at St Margaret's, Putney, will join us as the narrator.with kind permission: Artwork by Clive Hicks-JenkinsBy arrangement with CHESTER MUSIC LTD acting on behalf of Itself and SCHOTT MUSIC GMBH & CO KG - Saturday 22 May
Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda and Sāvitri by Gustav Holst
6pm 8pm St Mary's
4pm pre-concert talk Kitson Hall, free
with Subhanu Saxena, lecturer on ancient Indian philosophy and the VedasSatyavan, Ruairi Bowen
Death, Daniel D’Souza
Sāvitri, Bethany Horak-HallettRodolfus Upper Voice choir
Musicians and chanters from The Bhavan
Barnes Festival Orchestra
Leigh O’Hara conductor
Stella Uppal-Subbiah, Choreographer
Will Ashford director
programme / notes
Holst, a fellow resident of Barnes, was fascinated with South Asian culture. His chamber opera Savitri, an episode taken from the epic Sanskrit poem The Mahabharata which he translated himself, and his setting of the ancient Rigveda will be presented in collaboration with the Bhavan, the home of Indian arts in London.Taking Holst’s Savitri as a starting point for the second half of the concert, a team of South Asian classical musicians and dancers will join forces with a Western classical orchestra allowing the audience to re-engage with Holst’s interest in the Subcontinent. Told through dance, rooted in the Bharatanatyam tradition, this concert is a modern reinterpretation of an ancient universal tale.
bio
Will Ashford is a multidisciplinary theatre maker based in London.
As a director his recent credits include Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen for the Barnes Music Festival last year, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress and Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. He is currently working with Scottish Opera and the National Centre for the Performing Arts Mumbai on an international community-opera commission with outreach at hundreds of schools across India, Pakistan and Scotland.
Leigh O’Hara is a reluctant member of the British music establishment as the only person, apart from Holst and Vaughan Williams, to have run the music departments at James Allen’s Girls’ School and St Paul’s Girls’ School. After many years working as a pianist and piano teacher Leigh’s career is now focussed on conducting and his role at St Paul's where he is Deputy Head in charge of community partnerships as well as music.
Stella Uppal-Subbiah is a choreographer and founder of Sankalpam, a dance company investigating Bharatnatyam as a contemporary creative force. She teaches at the University of Surrey and has worked extensively within the Tamil diaspora community. Her work explores how the Bharatnatyam tradition can transcend its classical foundations in order to flourish as an art form that is relevant today.
Supported by Kala Sangam Arts Centre and The Holst Foundation - Sunday 23 May
Musical & Theatrical Anecdotes
with Gyles Brandreth
Helena Moore sopranoRichard Gowers piano2pm 4pm St Mary's
notes / bio
Local celebrity and Barnes Music Festival patron, Gyles Brandreth brings us an hour of Sunday afternoon entertainment with the help of musicians. A true expert, as he has worked in the theatre for more than forty years, he takes us on a tour behind the scenes through words and music. The anecdotes Gyles gathered in his most recent book, which serves as a starting point for the show, all have something pertinent and illuminating to say about an aspect of theatrical life―whether it is the art of playwriting, the craft of covering up missed cues, the drama of the First Night, the nightmare of touring, or the secret ingredients of star quality. Gyles has collaborated with countless Thespians and other creatives over the years. His partner-in-crime this time is the festival’s Artistic Director, James Day, who curated the most appropriate pieces of music to illustrate the anecdotes.Helena Moore studied at Trinity College Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music, where she was a Bach and Finzi Trust Scholar. She has recently been a semifinalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Competition.Richard Gowers is a collaborative pianist, conductor and organist. Richard studied at the Royal Academy, the Mendelssohn College in Leipzig and King’s, Cambridge. In addition to his work as pianist, he is equally in demand as a concert organist, chorus accompanist and opera repetiteur.Barnes Bookshop will make The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes available for sale and signing at the event.Concert Patron: Susie Gaunt
dedicated to the memory of Berkeley Gaunt
Musical Gems from Bach & Purcell
English Chamber Singers
Colette Boushell soprano, James Rhoads tenor,
Laurence Williams bass,
Alice Neary cello
Max Barley organ,
Martin Neary conductor
7pm St Michael's
programme / notes
JS Bach Motet Lobet den Herrn
Henry Purcell I was glad
Henry Purcell Music for a while
Henry Purcell Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei!
JS Bach Cello Suite No. 4 in E flat major
Henry Purcell Hear my prayer
Henry Purcell O God, thou art my God
Henry Purcell Evening Hymn
JS Bach Motet Jesu, meine Freude
Although he never wrote an opera, the dramatic quality of Bach’s choral settings is beyond dispute; and while his motets, like the Passions, were intended for liturgical use, they too share a sense of theatre. As Nicholas Kenyon has written, “few (of Bach’s works) are so perfect and so gem-like as his motets”. The same could also be said of Bach’s virtuoso suites for solo cello, which, while not specifically theatrical, have many dance movements.With Henry Purcell, the links with the theatre are clearer, even though the programme does not include one of his operas! The anthems, however, reveal Purcell’s astonishing originality when portraying the drama of his texts, and in the case of Hear my prayer and O God, thou art my God, an uncanny ability to set English words. Purcell, like Bach, was able to transcend his texts, and move us in a way beyond the power of the words.Photo©Colette BoushellConcert Patrons: Lord & Lady Patten of Barnes
- Monday 24 May
A Shakespeare Songbook
with Christopher Glynn piano
Rowan Pierce soprano
James Way tenor
6pm 8pm St Mary's
programme
Shakespeare in Love 1
Morley – It was a lover and his lass
Byrd – Caleno Custore Me
Arne – Where daisies pied
Schubert – Who is Sylvia?
Haydn – She never told her love
Bush – Sigh no more ladies
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Julius Harrison – I know a bank
Julius Harrison – Philomel
The Merchant of Venice
Britten – Tell me where is fancy bred
Head – How sweet the moonlight
As you like it
Gurney – Under the greenwood tree
Quilter – Blow blow thou winter wind
The Tempest
Handel – As steals the morn
Tippett – Songs for Ariel
Twelfth Night
Finzi – Come away death
Korngold – Adieu good man devil
Shakespeare in Love 2
Vaughan Williams – Orpheus with his lute
Grainger – Willow Song
Vaughan Williams – Fear no more the heat o’ the sun
Anon. – Greensleeves
Quilter – It was a lover and his lass
notes/bio
No writer has inspired more music. The lyricism in Shakespeare's poetry has been explored by countless composers and this programme explores some of the most memorable settings of all, some familiar, some rare. From the simple beauty of Elizabethan airs to the 'rich and strange' music of Tippett, 'touches of sweet harmony' here evoke the worlds of Shakespeare's clowns, kings, fairies, servants and lovers.
Grammy award-winning pianist and accompanist, Christopher Glynn returns to the festival and is joined this time by two young stars of the opera and song world, Rowan Pierce and James Way. Equally at home on the opera stage and the concert platform Rowan made her Wigmore Hall and Proms debuts in 2017 and was due to have her Covent Garden and Glyndebourne debuts in 2020. Ed has a wide repertoire from the baroque to contemporary and has appeared in many of the world’s leading opera and concert venues. In October 2019 he released his first solo album, The 17th Century Playlist.
Together they will wander with us “Over hill, over dale, Through bush, through briar” in the Bard’s magical world.
- Tuesday 25 May
programme notes / bio
C P E Bach Fantasie and Fugue in C minor Wq 119/7
J S Bach Alle Menschen müssen sterben BWV 643
Petr Eben: Student Songs, Gretchen (from Faust, 1980)
Franz Schmidt O wie selig seid ihr doch, ihr Frommen
Georg Böhm Auf meinen lieben Gott (4 variations)
J S Bach Passacaglia in C minor BWV 582
As well as performing worldwide in recitals and major festivals, including on many occasions at the Proms, David Titterington is Head of Organ at the Royal Academy of Music and Artistic Director of the St Albans International Organ Festival. His recital on the Peter Collins organ at St Mary’s Barnes is linked to the festival theme including Petr Eben’s music for Goethe’s Faust and other related works.
His Quest for Peace - Andrzej Panufnik
a Lyric Drama
with Clare Hammond piano
Tama Matheson author&actor
6pm 8pm St Mary's
programme / notes / bio
Andrzej Panufnik, one of the most important Polish 20th-century composers was born into war-torn Poland, and lived under the successive rule of the Nazis and the Soviets. The play follows the composer as he begins to make his way as an artist struggling to find a voice in a world where free speech is forbidden. Filled with amusing, shocking, and tragic incidents - including confrontations with Nazi overlords, and a high-speed car-chase - the play explores the horrors of tyranny, the power of art, and the triumph of the human spirit over adversity amid the expression of Panufnik's own music to create a unique dramatic fusion of words and music.
Andrzej Panufnik Twelve Miniature Studies
A Panufnik (arr. Roxanna Panufnik) Hommage à Chopin
Andrzej & Roxanna Panufnik Modlitwa
Acclaimed as a pianist of “amazing power and panache” (The Telegraph), Clare Hammond is recognised for the virtuosity and authority of her performances and has a “reputation for brilliantly imaginative concert programmes”. In 2020 she was engaged to perform at the Int. Piano Series (Southbank) and the Aldeburgh Festival.
Tama Matheson is an award-winning writer, director, and actor with a passion for bringing together music and the spoken word. He has been producing Lyric Dramas for several years in both England and Australia, where they have met with universal acclaim. His Tchaikovsky play was recently shortlisted for an RPS award.
Supported by the Polish Cultural Institute, London
- Wednesday 26 May
Beethoven's Immortal
words&music
with Jessica Duchen author&narrator
Viv McLean piano
6pm 8pm St Mary's
a Barnes Music Society event
1827. Ludwig van Beethoven is dead. In his apartment, his secretary has discovered a portrait of an unknown woman, and a passionate love letter – returned or unsent – to an individual addressed only as ‘Immortal Beloved’.Therese von Brunsvik, a Hungarian countess and pioneer of Kindergarten education, faces a dilemma. Everyone wants to know the identity of Beethoven’s mysterious love. Therese and her sisters Josephine and Charlotte were piano pupils of the composer from 1799 and became close to him, along with their brother, Franz. Therese, who never married, has told a young writer that she herself is Beethoven’s lost love. But is she protecting somebody, concealing a terrible and tragic secret? Who, really, is her “niece”? And how can she be certain that her suspicions are correct?Set in Vienna and Hungary against the turbulent background of the Napoleonic wars, in an era when ideals of equality and liberty were being asserted over entrenched aristocratic privilege, this novel is an emotional roller-coaster inspired by detailed research into a true story.
It is radically different from any Beethoven novel yet created and aims to combine the qualities of a `page-turner' with musicological accuracy and musical considerations, offering fresh light on Beethoven’s works. It casts perspective, too, on the position of women and the destructive divisions placed on relationships according to class.
Bagatelle, Op.126 No.3
Sonata in E flat, Op.81a, (Les Adieux) - first movement (Adagio - Allegro)
Andante in F, WoO.57 (Andante favori) - extract
Sonata in F minor, Op.57 (Appassionata) - first movement (Allegro assai)
Sonata in F sharp, Op.78 (à Thérèse) - first movement (Adagio cantabile - Allegro ma non troppo)
Nimm sie hinn denn, diese Lieder from An die Ferne Geliebte, Op.98 No.6 transc. Liszt
Sonata in A flat, Op.110 - third movement (Adagio ma non troppo - Allegro ma non troppo)
Author and presenter Jessica Duchen reimagines the story through Therese’s eyes, exploring a mystery that fascinates lovers of Beethoven’s music the world over. Viv McLean performs extracts from Beethoven’s piano works connected with the Brunsvik family. Music and words are closely integrated, building the story together.Books will be available for sale and signing at the event. Thursday 27 May
programme
John Dowland Praeludium, Fantasia, Lachrimae Pavane, Frog Galliard
John McLeod Fantasy on Themes from Britten’s ‘Gloriana’
Fernando Sor Variations onThemes from ‘The Magic Flute’
Stephen Dodgson Fantasy Divisions
Luigi Legnani Fantasia Op.19
notes / bio
Michael Butten was scheduled to perform in the second week of the 2020 Festival. He finally gets his BMF debut this year with a programme of “Fantasies”. Beginning with popular pieces by John Dowland, the 16th century British lutenist, Michael moves onto the opera stage with two pieces composed for the guitar on themes from Britten’s Gloriana by the contemporary Scottish composer, John McLeod, and from Mozart’s 'The Magic Flute' by Fernando Sor. Following local Barnes composer Stephen Dodgson’s Fantasy Divisions the recital ends with another Fantasy in the popular operatic style of the 19th century by the Italian Luigi Legnani.
A winner or finalist of several guitar competitions and a recipient of numerous prizes, Michael Butten is currently a Yeoman of The Musicians’ Company and the 2021 New Elizabethan Award Holder. He is a keen chamber musician, and particularly interested in the music of modern British composers, the British renaissance lute repertoire and the link often found between the music of these two eras.
Supported by The Stephen Dodgson Trust
programme
Ludwig v Beethoven Sonata No 8 C Minor, Op. 13 PathetiqueLudwig v Beethoven Sonata No 17 D Minor, No 2 The TempestJohannes Brahms 2 Rhapsodies Op. 79
notes / bio
Beethoven's Pathétique is one of the most loved and performed of Beethoven's piano sonatas. It is paired with The Tempest which takes its name from a reference to a conversation between Beethoven and Schindler, in which Beethoven suggested that Schindler should read Shakespeare's Tempest for cues for the piece’s interpretation. This is contrasted with Brahms’ ever-popular Rhapsodies that are rich in theatrical elements.
Born in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the Russian Far East, Daniel Kharitonov emerged as one of the brightest talents of the 15th Tchaikovsky International Competition when, in 2015 at the age of 16, he won third prize with a triumphant performance. Wherever he appears, Kharitonov charms the audience with powerful and moving performances full of young ferocity and darting energy.
At this early stage in his career, Kharitonov’s performances in the UK include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Christoph Altstaedt, the London Chamber and Philharmonia Orchestras with Vladimir Ashkenazy. This season he also gave a recital at International Steinway Series in Cardiff in November 2020 and has been invited to Southbank Centre London for his recital debut at International Piano Series.
Concert Patrons: Lord & Lady Patten of Barnes
- Friday 28 May
Shakespeare Restored
with Dramma per Musica
Rory Carver tenor,
Jonatan Bougt theorbo
Harry Buckoke viola da gamba
6pm 8pm St Mary's
notes / bio
The natural musicality of Shakespeare's writing and the intense emotion in his plays continues to influence and inspire music. You’ll hear dances from the spirits in The Tempest; soldier’s songs from Henry V; yearning declarations of love from Measure for Measure; mad songs from King Lear; and music such as Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, written to go alongside productions of Shakespeare plays.
Focussing on the mid- to late-17th Century settings of Shakespeare, Dramma per Musica bring music from a golden age of English composition in which composers broke with older forms to realise a more dramatic and rhetorical style of delivering text. Featuring Henry Purcell, Henry Lawes and Matthew Locke, this programme showcases gems of restoration theatre music.
Going one step further, they attempt to restore the performance of a monologue from Hamlet using Joshua Steele’s unique speech notation, bringing the sound not only of the musicians but also the actor's declamation from the 18th century to 2021.
Evident by their name, Dramma per Musica seek to bring out the drama in music. The group’s debut took place in the 2018 Brighton Early Music Festival and they have been performing in the UK and internationally since.
Programme
Comedy
Henry Purcell - If Music be the Food of Love Z 379C
John Playford - Divisions over Greensleeves
Pelham Humfrey - Where the bee sucks, there suck I
Henry Purcell - from The Tempest:
Overture (arr. Bougt after de Visée)
Dance of the winds
Your awful voice I hear and I obey
Henry Purcell - Dance of the spirits
History
Anne Boleyn - O, death rock me to sleep
Henry Butler - Callino Casturame divisions
Thomas Morley - It was a Lover and his Lass
Tobias Hume - Soldiers Resolution
Robert Johnson - Where the bee sucks, there suck I
Joshua Steele - Extract from Hamlet (Quarto ed.)
Tragedy
Anon. - A Dance in the Play of Julius Cesar
Henry Lawes - A storm
arr. Robert de Visée - Contredance & Double or La Furstemberg
Purcell - From ros'y bow'rs, Come away fellow sailors
Purcell - Music from Timon of Athens
Matthew Locke -Consort for several friends, D minor suite
Thomas Ravenscroft - The Fools song
Matthew Locke - Ayre, Courante
John Wilson - Take, oh take those lips away
Matthew Locke - Ayre, Courante, Saraband
Henry Purcell - The Plaint
Supported by The Musicians' Company - Saturday 29 May
Music for Theatre and Ballet
with Lucy Gould violin
Robert Plane clarinet
Benjamin Frith piano
6pm 8pm St Mary's
programme
Darius Milhaud Suite for violin, clarinet and piano, Pp. 157b
Erich Korngold Much Ado about Nothing, Op. 11 (arr. for violin and piano)
Joseph Holbrooke Mezzo-Tints, Op. 55 (selection)
Igor Stravinsky Suite from The Soldier’s Tale
notes / bio
The programme draws upon music for the stage, in all of its forms. The suites by Milhaud and Korngold are based on incidental music for plays. Holbrooke’s Butterfly of the Ballet harks back to the composer’s music hall roots, a medium in which both his parents worked, and in which he was immersed as a child. Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale was ‘to be read, played and danced’ by a small troupe of actors and musicians; in this programme it is Stravinsky’s own arrangement for trio that will be presented.
The Gould Piano Trio - of which both Lucy and Benjamin are members - has been compared to the great Beaux Arts Trio for their “musical fire” and “dedication to the genre” and has remained at the forefront of the international chamber music scene for over 25 years. The partnership between Robert and the Trio stretches back over the same period.
- Sunday 30 May
Stravinsky: Once, at a border
A Tony Palmer Film
introduced by Tony Palmer
10am Olympic Studios
notes / bio
To mark the 50th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky’s death, acclaimed film-maker Tony Palmer introduces his film portrait of one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. Giving an overview of the man and his music, the film includes performances of Les Noces in its original form and Petrushka as performed by the Bolshoi Ballet, The Rite of Spring, The Rake’s Progress, the symphonies, the violin concerto and much else. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the San Francisco Film Festival.
“Tony Palmer has given us many remarkable films about composers, but this is probably the finest of them all” BBC Music Magazine
Performances from the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, Westminster Abbey Choir, the State Choir of Latvia, the National Radio Orchestra of the USSR and the Royal Ballet
Author and film director Tony Palmer has won over forty international prizes for his work, including and especially television's most coveted award, the Prix d'Italia; indeed, he is the only person to have won this prize three times, and has been honoured by the Italia Prize with a gala screening of his work.
Festival Choral Evensong
with Revd Lucy Winkett
and the St Mary's & St Michael's choirs & performance by the winner of the Barnes Young Musician of the Year 2021 Award
6pm St Mary's
free
programme
Martin Neary Introit - May the grace of Christ our SaviourCV Stanford Psalm 150Howard Goodall The Lord is my Shepherd,Henry Purcell Evening Service in G MinorThe address is given by Revd Lucy Winkett. Having worked as a professional soprano before becoming ordained, she was previously Canon Precentor of St Paul’s Cathedral and is now Rector of St James’s Piccadilly. She broadcasts regularly on religion, gender and contemporary culture and is a frequent contributor to Radio 4’s Thought for the Day.
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