Chelmsford Cathedral Festival makes a celebrity start on Saturday May 8 2004 with .Alessio Bax, Leeds International Piano Competition Winner in 2000, performing the ever popular Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Southbank Sinfonia who also play Brahms’ Symphony No. 2. On Monday May 10 Emma Johnson, one of the world’s leading clarinettists and BBC Young Musician of the Year in 1984, leads the European Union Chamber Orchestra in Weber’s Clarinet Concertino, together with a Mozart Divertimento and Tchaikovsky’s luscious Serenade for Strings. The final weekend on May 14 sees Mr Hefty Jazz, Keith Smith and his All Stars and the legendary Georgie Fame swinging us From Basin Street to Broadway. On May 15, Douglas Boyd conducts the City of London Sinfonia and Natalie Clein, the 1994 BBC Young Musician of the Year in Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, together with Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro Overture and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 3.
Why not make a week of it ? On the morning of Saturday May 8 there are Mystery Plays in the Cathedral and at the Town Sign. On Sunday May 9 the Cathedral has a double recital by Opus Anglicanum as they paint a delightful afternoon picture in words and music of England’s Green and Pleasant Land, mixing Dickens and Betjeman with Purcell and Elgar, and sing Dupré’s Vespers in the evening with the Cathedral choirmen and organist. On Tuesday May 11 I Fagiolini perform the imaginative masked production of Vecchi’s L’Amfiparnaso, combining slapstick with glorious Renaissance music. On Wednesday May 12 Orpheus Britannicus led by Chelmsford’s own Andrew Arthur, give a baroque concert on period instruments. On Thursday May 13 Michael George and Julie Kennard serenade us in song From Purcell to Gershwin With Love.
At lunchtimes try Richard Walley’s electronic version of a Byrd Mass (St. John’s Moulsham, Monday), Jacobean vocal and lute music from members of Contra Factum (Great Waltham, Tuesday), Opus4 Clarinet Quartet jazz (St. John’s Moulsham, Wednesday), Lynne Creasey’s harp music (Church of the Ascension, Thursday), the Anglia Chamber Choir’s European sacred music and American spirituals (Cathedral, Friday) or the Arioso String Quartet’s wedding music (Great Baddow, second Saturday).
The Festival in the Community’s theme is Chelmsford Echoes. Find out about Chelmsford at War 1914, Chelmsford’s growth as a University town and the local history of change-ringing linked to a talk on Witham’s Dorothy L. Sayers and her bell-ringing murder mystery. Elsewhere RHS Hyde Hall take you through the history of the English garden and show you how to create a wild-life garden while Essex and Suffolk Water unfold the development of Hanningfield Reservoir. On a different tack listen to radio celebrity Libby Purves and explorers Tom Hart-Dyke and Paul Winder at Ottakar’s Literary Luncheon. Or just enjoy the Library art exhibition and the school and community group street performances, followed by a visit to the Festival Restaurant and Bar in Guy Harlings’ Garden.
FESTIVAL AT A GLANCE
10.30 a.m. Mystery Plays (Cathedral)
8.00 p.m. Southbank Sinfonia (Cathedral)
3.00 p.m. Opus Anglicanum (Cathedral)
8.00 p.m. Vespers of the Blessed Virgin (Cathedral)
1.00 p.m. Mass – Richard Walley (St. John’s Moulsham)
2.00 p.m. Wildlife garden (RHS Hyde Hall)
8.00 p.m. European Chamber Orchestra (Cathedral)
1.00 p.m. Jacobean music (Great Waltham Church)
2.30 p.m. Chelmsford at War 1914 (Essex Record Office)
6.15 p.m. Making of a University Town (APU)
8.00 p.m. I Fagiolini – L’Amfiparnaso (Cathedral)
1.00 p.m. Opus4 Clarinet Quartet – (St. John’s Moulsham)
2.30 p.m. Dorothy L. Sayers (Essex Record Office)
8.00 p.m. Orpheus Britannicus (Cathedral)
1.00 p.m. Lynne Creasey - harp (Church of the Ascension)
3.00 p.m. History of the English Garden (RHS Hyde Hall)
8.00 p.m. From Purcell to Gershwin With Love (Cathedral)
10.00 a.m. Making of Hanningfield Reservoir (Hanningfield)
12.00 p.m. Ottakar’s Literary Luncheon (Chapter House)
12.40.p.m. Anglia Chamber Choir – (Cathedral)
8.00 p.m. From Basin Street to Broadway (Cathedral)
1.00 p.m. Arioso String Quartet (Great Baddow Church)
8.00 p.m. City of London Sinfonia (Cathedral)