The 2024 Presteigne Festival opens on Thursday 22 August with the World Premiere of Julian Philips’ Melodys of Earth and Sky for narrator and ensemble, specially commissioned by Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts Limited, with generous funding from the Colwinston Charitable Trust.
The actor Anton Lesser joins the Presteigne Festival Ensemble conducted by George Vass in this exploration of the nineteenth century rural poet and musician, John Clare. Julian Philips has long had a great affinity for the work of John Clare, setting four sonnets for baritone and piano in 2002 and more recently creatively transcribing an instrumental songbook Melodys of Earth and Sky of selected Clare tunes for clarinet and violin interspersed with Clare readings chosen to resonate with the themes and character of the music. (These were recorded by actor Toby Jones, with clarinettist Kate Romano and violinist Ionel Manciu for NMC recordings.)
This new suite Melodys of Earth and Sky for actor and a ensemble of 10 players, brings Clare’s words into the fabric of the music, with the range of emotions, the landscape, aural traditions, affinities between music and text brought to life with a richer colour palette.
You can buy the recording of Melodys of Earth and Sky here.
The festival also features the World Premiere of Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s Dance Suite on 24 August with pianist Annie Yim.
The programme for this concert, event 23 of the festival, features a delightful collection of piano music which intertwines with spoken texts from Dr Sue Stuart-Smith’s book The Well Gardened Mind – multi-sensory storytelling about the essence of our wellbeing. Stuart-Smith’s book was the central inspiration for Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s new work.
The 2024 Presteigne Festival also features several other works from the Wise Music Catalogue:
Event 2 - The English Guitar 22/8/24
Sally Beamish - Unquiet
Lennox Berkeley - Theme and Variations
Lennox Berkeley - Sonatina for Guitar
Event 3 - Façade
Julian Philips - Melodys of Earth and Sky
Event 7 - The Piano in Nature
Jean Sibelius - Five Pieces, Op 75 'The Trees'
Event 12 - In the Theatre of Air
Judith Weir - Several Concertos
Event 14 - Mirror of Perfection
Richard Blackford - Mirror of Perfection
Event 23 - The Well Gardened Mind
Cheryl Frances-Hoad - Dance Suite
Lili Boulanger - Trois Morceaux pour piano
Find out more and see the rest of the programme at the Presteigne Festival Website.
