Presteigne Festival transcends its provincial base (From Hereford Times)

Presteigne Festival transcends its provincial base

9:49am Thursday 1st September 2011 in Reviews

By John Rushby-Smith

As always achieving the highest artistic standards, the Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts retains the charm of its small town home while at the same time spilling out into surrounding villages like Leintwardine, Pembridge, Kinnerton and Discoed, whose magnificent churches serve the role of concert hall so admirably. Under the meticulous eye of director George Vass the festival also continues to transcend its provincial base. As well as bringing together leading composers and performers from all over the UK, this year’s festival celebrated modern Lithuanian music in performances that were as revelatory as they were enjoyable. No more so than in the splendid concert by the young singers of the Choir of Royal Holloway, when the Baltic predilection for complex a capella vocal music was revealed to ravishing effect, especially in the mesmerising works of Vytautas Miškinis. The instrumental music was pretty good too. Vytautas Bacevičius and Zita Bružaitè et al may not be household names beyond Vilnius but they have a command of their art that is second to none.

The Lithuanians were well served by the festival’s assemblage of highly talented, mostly young musicians, as indeed were the home-grown composers. Composer-in-residence this year was the gifted Joseph Phibbs whose works matched those of his Nordic counterparts in the use of rich sonorities that were refreshing after the astringent language of recent generations, especially in his impressive work The Canticle of the Rose, when the energetic Navarra Quartet supported the colourful singing of Helen-Jane Howells. Throughout the festival the multi-faceted Huw Watkins matched his skill as composer with pianism of staggering virtuosity, notably when paired with outstanding violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen in a recital that included Lloyd Moore’s haunting Three Part Invention and the ravishing Like the Touch of a Sea Wave by the Lithuanian Osvaldas Balakauskas. Equally dazzling was Russian-born pianist and composer Alissa Firsova. Her solo recital included an affecting work by Jon Opstad, winner of this year’s Composers’ Competition, and captivating pieces by Mikalojus Čiurlionis, Vytautas Bacevičius and Joseph Phibbs. It culminated in a performance of Shostakovich’s spine-tingling Piano Sonata No.1 that left the audience reeling.

Deserving special praise was the hard-worked Presteigne Festival Orchestra. Under George Vass’s baton in the Festival Finale its skilful players switched from style to style with aplomb as they tackled idioms ranging from Michael Tippett’s busy counterpoint to John Ireland’s sublime pastoral meanderings. That the orchestra had a five-to-one ratio of female to male players shows how few young men are taking up classical music these days, and that is a shame.

As if reminding us of the troubled world beyond the Radnorshire horizons, there was also a thought-provoking exhibition at The Rodd of works commemorating the ANZAC Gallipoli tragedy by the legendary Australian artist Sir Sidney Nolan, who made the ancient manor his home.

Next year will be Vass’s 20th year as Festival Director and 2013 brings the Festival’s 30th anniversary. Both will deserve celebration as major landmarks in the artistic calendar.

Press on Presteigne!