Festival Dates 2001: 12-19 May
The programme for the eighteenth Chelmsford Cathedral Festival has now been published, the first created by Peter Nardone, the new Artistic Director and Director of Music at Chelmsford Cathedral.
The programme is excitingly wide-ranging in its musical appeal. It opens on May 12th 2001 with the 1998 BBC TV Young Musician of the Year, percussionist Adrian Spillett and the percussion quartet 4-mality, plus the Apollo Saxophone Quartet and the Gentlemen of the Chelmsford Cathedral Choir. It concludes on May 19th with a welcome return of The King’s Consort performing Dido and Aeneas with Lyn Dawson and Michael George in the name roles.
In between there is a delicious mélange. Choral works include a Widor Mass for choir and two organs from the Chelmsford Cathedral Choir ; English part-songs from the Singers of London ; descriptive story-telling in song from Opus Anglicanum ; while The Demon Barbers promise to be a cross between The King’s Singers and the Marx brothers. The award-winning Maggini Quartet will delight us in the new venue of New Hall School Chapel. Keyboard recitals will be given by David Farmer on the accordion and Daniel Smith, returning to his home town, on piano. Siobahn Presencer and Vincent Lindsey-Clarke will impart a Spanish flavour on flute and guitar complemented by a French programme from the Calefax Reed Quintet. Jazz with The Broadway Band will take us from Bach to Ellington. Renaissance 2000, with Colin Carey on organ and Jonathan Freeman Attwood on trumpet, will provide a fresh and scintillating approach to chamber music. Another celebrated trumpeter, Crispian Steele Perkins will perform baroque music with soprano Ruth Holton, a baroque orchestra and the Chelmsford Cathedral Choir. Crispian and Peter Nardone will also illustrate the history of the trumpet using instruments and a vast array of ancillary plumbing.
Throughout the week there will be films and theatre, and exhibitions of art and sculpture in and around the Cathedral and the town, with the artists themselves conducting guided tours. Nick Hornby, Gilda O’Neill and Michael Wood will speak at The Festival Literary Luncheon. The University Lecture on the English Civil War will be given by Quentin Skinner, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University. The new Essex Record Office, the most advanced of its kind in the country, will also provide tours, and lectures on the Civil War as it affected the local area, and the Petre family in particular. And the Festival in the Community will see the streets alive with singers, bands, dancers, and artists giving a truly festive atmosphere to the town.
| Sat May 12 Cathedral |
Adrian Spillett and 4-mality : The Apollo Saxophone Quartet : The Gentlemen of Chelmsford Cathedral Choir in an exciting programme which includes the world premier of a work by Dinuk Wijeratne 4-Mality Web site |
| Sun May 13 Cathedral |
Festival Eucharist : Mass for two choirs and two organs by Widor : Chelmsford Cathedral Choir : Chelmsford Cathedral Voluntary Choir : conductor Peter Nardone : organist Edward Wellmann |
| Sun May 13 Church of the Ascension |
Justin Doyle conducts the Singers of London in a programme of English part-songs |
| Sun May 13 Cathedral |
Siobhan Presencer (flute) and Vincent Lindsey-Clarke (guitar) : Sanz Suite Espanole : Granados Intermezzo from Goyescas : de Falla The Three-Cornered Hat : Lindsey-Clark Homage to Piazzolla : Lindsey-Clarke Five Pictures of Sark : Piazzolla Histoire du Tango |
| Mon May 14 Cathedral |
The Broadway Band led by Martin Nicholls (vocals and trombone) and David Rees-Williams (piano) present foot-tapping favourites of Bach, Purcell, Handel, Kern, Rodgers, Gershwin, Fats Waller and Duke Ellington |
| Mon May 14 New Hall Chapel |
The Maggini Quartet : Haydn Quartet Op. 33 no. 1 : Bax Third String Quartet : Dvorak "The American" Quartet Op. 96 |
| Tue May 15 Cathedral |
The Demon Barbers present popular classics from the 1920s to the 1990s with spirituals, folksongs and their very own compositions. |
| Tue May 15 Cathedral |
Opus Anglicanum present Angels and Archangels : the words of Eliot, Traherne, Spencer and others are magically woven together with the music of Byrd, Palestrina, Balakirev and other Russian chants |
| Wed May 16 Cathedral |
Renaissance 2000 : Colin Carey (organ), Jonathan Freeman Attwood (trumpet) : Rameau (arr. Carey) Overture (Dardanus) : Buxtehude Passacaglia in D : Viviani Sonata No. 1 Op. 4 : de Arauxo Sinfonia from Cantata 169 : Sullivan Overture from The Yeomen of the Guard : Elgar Elegy Op. 58 : Whitlock Scherzetto : Warlock Capriol Suite |
| Thu May 17 Cathedral |
David Farmer (accordion) |
| Thu May 17 St. John’s Moulsham |
Daniel Smith (piano) |
| Thu May 17 Cathedral |
Calefax Reed Quintet : Rameau Le rappel des oiseaux : Ravel Tombeau de Couperin : Debussy Rapsodie : Debussy La plus que lente : Debussy Children’s Corner |
| Fri May 18 Cathedral |
A Celebration of the Baroque : Chelmsford Cathedral Choir with baroque orchestra : Crispian Steele Perkins (trumpet), Ruth Holton (soprano) : a programme including Handel Suite from Samson : Dead March : Let the bright Seraphim : Let their celestial concerts all unite : Purcell music from The Indian Queen : Bach Cantata Jauchzet Gott |
| Sat May 19 Cathedral |
The Trumpet Shall Sound : Crispian Steel Perkins assisted by Peter Nardone illustrate the history of the trumpet |
| Sat May 19 Cathedral |
The King’s Consort : Lyn Dawson, Michael George, Carolyn Sampson, Charles Humphries, James Gilchrist : Purcell Dido and Aeneas and Why are all the Muses mute |