Presteigne pulls in crowds with a packed programme

10:48am Thursday 4th September 2008

THIS year’s Presteigne Festival was a resounding success with audience capacity running at 87%.

Love and lust

9:07am Tuesday 26th August 2008

Howard Ferguson wrote his Overture for an Occasion (Opus 16) for the 1953 Coronation, and it certainly got ‘Love and Lust’off to a rousing start, Expertly orchestrated, with touches of Walton, Elgar, Vaughan-Williams and Eric Coates thrown in, it makes a great opener and is definitely a work to hear again.

A concert of contrasts

9:07am Tuesday 26th August 2008

You might naturally assume that the cynical and sometimes pessimistic poetry of AE Housman would lead to its being set to music in a similar vein. You would be wrong, as tenor Adrian Thompson, along with players from the Philharmonia Orchestra, proved in his Huntingdon Hall recital. The two works performed, Vaughan-Williams’ cycle On Wenlock Edge and Ludlow and Teme, Ivor Gurney’s cycle from 1919, combined very well in spite of their stylistic difference and it was interesting to hear the same poetry evoking quite different musical responses. Both are settings of lines from Housman’s A Shropshire Lad and both are scored for the same combination of voice, piano and string quartet, and neither met with Housman’s approval – he particularly hated the Vaughan-Williams work.

Tha animals came in two by two

9:06am Tuesday 26th August 2008

Britten’s Noyes Fludde may have been written for children and amateurs, but the performance recently at The Three Choirs Festival in Worcester’s Baptist Church by the Singworks course confirmed that opera can be serious and at the same time a very enjoyable event for people of all ages, audience included. The score contains some novel and startling innovative effects. We had gangs of children, artfully disguised as all sorts of animals, a handbell choir, several groups of mostly amateur orchestral players, together with three central roles: God (spoken), Noah and Mrs Noah. Robert Swinton’s speaking part, delivered from a side balcony, was solemn yet effective, while William Coleman’s very well-presented Noah was suitably contrasted by Claire Stoneman’s Mrs Noah as his henpecking wife, and both their roles were acted and sung with care and an obvious enjoyment of the wonderful music. Even the capacity audience were induced to join in, which we all did with gusto.

Tenor takes Three Choirs festival by storm

1:14pm Thursday 21st August 2008

TENOR James Gilchrist is blessed with a wonderful lyric voice, a pianissimo which must be the envy of his fellows, and a warm and engaging platform manner.

Dr Who and Hamlet

12:28am Wednesday 6th August 2008

David Tennant stars in the title role of the RSC's new production at Stratford-upon-Avon

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Leonard Cohen at the Big Chill

8:30pm Monday 4th August 2008

Forty one years after The Songs of Leonard Cohen, the legendary performer headlines in Herefordshire

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Spectacular setting for dramatic dance

2:14pm Friday 11th July 2008

THE setting was spectacular, the music spine-tingling, the dancing mesmerising ... and the weather, against all expectations, was kind as Forbidden - a tale of love and war, Dancefest’s latest impressive production was performed at Goodrich Castle last Thursday.

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