Saturday 16 August 2003

Polstead Village Hall, 11.00 a.m.

Pre-festival talk

by Peter Holman, Artistic Director

preceded by coffee at 10.30 a.m.

Friday 22 August 2003

St Mary’s Church, Stoke by Nayland, 7.00 p.m.

Pre-concert talk by Stephen Rose, University of Cambridge

St Mary’s Church, Stoke by Nayland, 8.15 p.m.

(Please note starting time)

Pachelbel and J. S. Bach

Psalmody

The Parley of Instruments

directed by Peter Holman

Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706) is known today almost entirely for his Canon, originally written for three violins and continuo, but arranged in modern times or everything from solo organ to brass bands and pop groups. However, he was one of the most important German composers of the seventeenth century, and was a great influence on his relative, the young Johann Sebastian Bach. This anniversary concert (he was born 350 years ago) is an opportunity to explore more of his music, including some of his suites for strings and two fine sacred ‘concertos’for voices and instruments based on Lutheran chorales. It includes his setting of ‘Christ lag in Todesbanden’, and Bach’s great setting of the same chorale, Cantata No. 4, which it inspired. Also included is another fine early work by Bach, ‘Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich’ (Cantata No. 150) which contains the model for the finale of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony.

Saturday 23 August 2003

St James’s Church, Nayland, 12.00 midday

Monteverdi and his contemporaries

Philippa Hyde (soprano) & Fred Jacobs (theorbo)

Following their successful recital in the 2001 Festival, Philippa Hyde and Fred Jacobs return with a new programme of seventeenth-century music for voice and theorbo, focusing on the Italy of Monteverdi’s time. The programme includes songs and monodies by Monteverdi, including his famous ‘Lamento d’Arianna’, the only surviving portion of his opera Arianna (1608), as well as works by Landi, Rossi and Huygens, who heard Monteverdi in Venice in 1623, and recently discovered pieces for theorbo by Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger, the lutenist of German descent resident in Rome. Philippa Hyde is one of the mos t exciting young sopranos in the early music scene, and appears regularly at the Festival. Fred Jacobs lives in Amsterdam, and is one of Europe’s most distinguished lutenists.

St Mary’s Church, Hadleigh, 7.30 p.m.

Henry Purcell: King Arthur (1691)

Soloists include: Jane Oakshott & Jack Edwards (speakers)

Philippa Hyde & Claire Tomlin (soprano)

Timothy Kenworthy-Brown (countertenor)

Patrick McCarthy (tenor)

Psalmody · Essex Baroque Orchestra

directed by Peter Holman

King Arthur is the second of the great semi-operas—plays with elaborate music—that Purcell wrote for the London theatres in the 1690s, and contains some of his finest theatre music. John Dryden’s play tells the story of Arthur’s struggles against the Saxons, though it owes nothing to the Mediaeval legends of Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table. Instead, there is plenty of emphasis on sorcery, magic and spectacular music, including the famous Frost Scene, conjured-up by the Saxon magician Osmond to seduce Emmeline, Arthur’s intended bride. In this complete concert performance, Purcell’s music is linked by a specially written script conveying the essence of Dryden’s play.

Sunday 24 August 2003

St Mary’s Church, Stoke by Nayland, 7.30 p.m.

Beethoven and his contemporaries

Colin Lawson (clarinet), Sebastian Comberti (cello), Steven Devine (fortepiano)

Colin Lawson makes a welcome return to the Festival with two distinguished colleagues for a fascinating programme of music from around 1800 played on instruments of the period. Beethoven’s youthful Trio in B •at, Op. 11, is contrasted with a trio for the same instruments by his talented pupil and patron, Rudolf, Archduke of Austria. The programme also includes Beethoven’s early Sonata in F, Op. 5 No. 1, for cello and piano, and Weber’s Grand duo concertant, the greatest work for clarinet and piano from the early nineteenth century. Colin Lawson is Britain’s leading exponent of early clarinets, and the author of a number of books on the subject. Sebastian Comberti is one of the foremost cellists specialising in period performance. Steven Devine, one of the most sought-after of historically informed keyboard players, plays a fine modern copy by Christopher Barlow of a Graf fortepiano.

Monday 25 august 2003

St Mary’s Church, Boxford, 12.00 midday

The Natural History of the Bassoon

Sally Holman (dulcian and Baroque, Classical and modern bassoons)

Louise Jameson (cello)

Steven Devine (harpsichord & chamber organ)

The bassoon has a long, colourful history stretching back to the Renaissance dulcian. In this informal lecture recital, Sally Holman plays works by Salaverde, Boismortier, Telemann, Mozart and others on historical bassoons and modern copies. Sally Holman is one of the leading British exponents of the Baroque bassoon, and is a member of the prize-winning trio Apollo & Pan. She plays regularly at the Festival.

St Mary’s Church, Boxford, 7.30 p.m.

Handel: Apollo e Dafne (1706–10)

with concertos by Corelli & Vivaldi

Claire Tomlin (soprano), Eamonn Dougan (baritone)

Sally Holman (bassoon)

Essex Baroque Orchestra

directed by Peter Holman

Apollo e Dafne is the greatest of the smaller dramatic works Handel wrote during his youthful years in Italy. It tells with great panache Ovid’s story of Apollo’s pursuit of the nymph Dafne, mixing virtuosic and heart-rending music. Handel’s vivid use of the orchestra was much-influenced by Corelli, who led orchestras for him in Rome. The first half of the concert is a tribute to Corelli in the 350th anniversary of his birth, contrasting several of his Op. 6 concerti grossi with a bassoon concerto by Vivaldi, his greatest successor, and the orchestral arrangement of his ‘La Folia’ sonata made by his pupil Francesco Geminiani. Claire Tomlin has been appearing at the Suffolk Villages Festival since she was a student, and is now much in demand as a solo in consort singer in such groups as The Monteverdi Choir and Ex Cathedra. Eamonn Dougan is one of Britain’s most sought-after young baritones. He took the role of Adonis in Blow’s Venus and Adonis during the 2002 Festival.