English Music Festival 2011

[albion]

Details of the fifth EMF are out now and include several interesting performances -

Stanford's String Quartet No.3 and Norman O'Neill's Piano Quintet (Bridge Quartet with Michael Dussek, piano)

Ivor Gurney's Violin Sonata in E flat (world premiere)

York Bowen's Preludes (selection) and Piano Sonata No.5 together with Benjamin Dale's Sonata (Danny Driver, piano)

Edgar Bainton's An English Idyll and Sullivan's complete Incidental music to Macbeth (English SO)

York Bowen's Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra, recently recorded by Dutton (Raphael Wallfisch and the Bournemouth SO)

Vaughan Williams' The Garden of Proserpine (another world premiere with Janice Watson, The Joyful Company of Singers and the Bournemouth SO)

Full details are here - http://www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk/programme.html   

[eschiss1]

I've just been humming the third movement from Stanford's quartet no.3 for the last day or so, a work I've known in one form or another for years (interloaned it from the college library, made a MIDI recording of it years later, then SBB made a recording recently- infinitely superior it goes without saying. I hope its star will shine- but then I really adore the piece. Thank you for the info!)
Eric

[ahinton]

I have sent an email to Em Marshall questioning why each of these festivals almost entirely eschews English post-WWII music and will be interested to read the response if any.

Best,

Alistair

[petershott@btinternet.com]

A fully pertinent question! I cannot object to their choosing to restrict the Festival to English music - that, for good or ill, is their right. Though as a potential punter I'd like to fork into my pocket to buy tickets for performances of good music whatever the nationality of the composer. But English music written before c1940 just seems arbitary and prejudicial to the quality of music written after that date. Shouldn't there be a responsibility upon deserving festivals to enable audiences to hear works they might not have heard before? Otherwise concerts and festivals just become museums. And I can think of a few figures who should be thought of as major figures in 20th century music but who were not born in the UK but who, for the sake of their survival, came to live in England and to adopt it as their home. Is their music not 'English' and cannot be performed at such a festival?