Winchfield Festival 2021

Winner of the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Instrumental Award, Fenella Humphreys is one of the UK’s most established and versatile violinists. She has won critical admiration and audience acclaim with the lyrical grace and intensity of her playing.

Fenella will be joined for this concert by the acclaimed ‘cellist Cara Berridge, who graduated from the Royal College of Music in 2002 with First Class Honours and continued her studies as the Amaryllis Fleming Scholar, receiving her Postgraduate Diploma and Advanced Diploma with Distinction in 2003 and 2004. Since then, she has developed a distinguished career as a soloist, as well as being the founder of the award-winning Sacconi Quartet.

PROGRAMME:
Bartok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Hungarian Folk Melodies
Rebecca Clarke . . . . . . . . . . . Lullaby and Grotesque
Bach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cello Suite No 5 in C minor
*** Interval ***
Bach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Violin Partita no 3 in E major
Ravel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sonata for Violin and Cello
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The programme is based around two of Bach’s solo works. The first half ends with the emotional Cello Suite No 5, which is most famous for its intimate sarabande, played by Yo-Yo Ma at the site of the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2002 to mark the first anniversary of the attack. After the interval we hear the Violin Partita No 3, the last of Bach’s six solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas. The rest of the programme is music written for violin and ‘cello duo, ending with Ravel’s 1920 sonata.

Monday 9 August - Galliard Wind Ensemble

Former BBC New Generation Artists, the Galliard Ensemble is established as one of Britain's leading chamber groups, with repertoire ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Berio and Birtwistle.

The Galliard Ensemble is known for its virtuosic, entertaining and distinctive performance style and its recordings have been widely praised; the Sunday Times, BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone and BBC Radio 3 have all selected a Galliard Ensemble CD as "outstanding" or as a Critics' Choice.

Currently in its 27th year, the ensemble has performed in many of the world’s leading venues and festivals, including the Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, Bridgewater Hall, Sage Gateshead and at the BBC Proms. They have also performed in Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland and Slovenia and are frequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and around the World.

Wind players have claimed the great outdoors as their stage for centuries. Come and join us in the Winchfield marquee for an outdoors-inspired programme of musical favourites. We will explore how nature has affected music for wind ensemble since Mozart’s time, when we would have mingled with the scent of flowers and the buzz of bees as we played at household garden parties and dances. And then let us take you further back in time to the Dark Ages, with jousting knights and hunting, before ending up with a tour of the West Country’s greatest folk tunes.

PROGRAMME
Strauss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Die Fledermaus Overture, arr. Thomas Graf
Haydn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Divertimento in B flat major, Hob.II:46, Chorale St Anton
Mozart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mozart Quintet in C minor, after Serenade no. 12, K. 388, and Quintet, K. 406, arr. Mordechai Rechtman
*** Interval ***
Milhaud La Cheminée du Roi René
McDowall Subject to the weather
Patterson Westerly Winds, op. 84

Tuesday 10 August - Heather Cairncross and David Newton

“I am not overstating it to suggest this recording is absolutely exceptional. No ifs or buts, it is as good as any vocal album I have heard for a very long time. Just superb!” Barry Claire, Just Jazz Magazine

In over 25 years as a singer, Heather Cairncross has worked with some of the great musicians of the age, performing concerts everywhere from La Scala to Carnegie Hall. For ten years she sang with the Swingle Singers, and she has specialised in contemporary music, working with composers, including Steve Reich and Luciano Berio. Heather’s uniquely versatile voice has allowed her to sing successfully at the highest level internationally in many musical genres. Her career has included concert performances with Stephane Grappelli, operas at La Scala, Milan, and solo engagements with the world’s leading ensembles including the Chicago, Boston and London Symphony Orchestras. A specialist in both Contemporary and Baroque music, Heather sings with Steve Reich and Musicians as well as being a member of, and soloist for Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir (Gramophone Magazine Best Choir in the World 2010). She has also sung for artists such as Tony Bennett, Björk, Mike Oldfield and Michael Jackson. She has recorded many film scores including Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars and La Vie en Rose (BAFTA 2008 winner). Pre-pandemic 2019 highlights include concerts in Shanghai with Colin Currie Group, Miami with The New World Symphony Orchestra, a European tour and live recording of Handel’s Semele with The Monteverdi Choir at venues including Alexandra Palace and La Scala, Milan and (her favourite) The Warner Brothers Story with The John Wilson Orchestra at the BBC Proms.

For this concert Heather will be joined by David Newton (piano), one of the most versatile and gifted pianists on the jazz scene, and 16 times winner of Best UK Jazz Pianist award. Dave played to great acclaim at the 2012 Winchfield Festival. David Newton began his musical career in theatre before switching to jazz piano and, after making his first recording with Martin Taylor and Buddy De Franco, was persuaded to move to London by his old Leeds College roommate, Alan Barnes. Thanks to an award-winning album with Scottish singer Carol Kidd, Newton gained a reputation as an accompanist for singers and as a direct result, has developed his insight and affinity with The Great American Songbook working with Marion Montgomery, Tina May, Annie Ross, Claire Martin and of course Stacey Kent.
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He was reunited with playwright Alan Aykbourn, having been involved with eight world premiers in Scarborough and London back in the early eighties, and was asked to write the music for two new productions, Sugar Daddies and Drowning on Dry Land.
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Newton has fifteen albums in his name and collaborated on over eighty with other artists. He was made a fellow of The City of Leeds College of Music in 2003 and won Best Pianist at the British Jazz Awards in 2019 for the sixteenth time.

For this concert Heather and Dave will be joined by Tom Farmer on the bass and Sebastiaan de Krom (who also played at the 2012 Winchfield Festival) on the drums.

Tom Farmer is a busy member of the British music scene, with award-winning quartet Empirical and many other diverse ensembles and projects. Farmer started his musical career as a pianist and electric bass player, before focussing on double bass in 2002, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating with B Mus (Hons) in 2006. Farmer has a 13-year catalogue of works recorded with Empirical, including works for string quartet and jazz ensemble. Farmer has recently become a full-time professor at the Guildhall School of Music, lecturing in jazz, double bass and ensemble techniques.

Sebastiaan de Krom was born in 1971 in Dordrecht in the Netherlands. He started playing drums at the age of two. Jazz music was always his big love; at an early age he started to perform in several bands including leading his own. Drama, lecturing in jazz, double bass and ensemble techniques. In 2000 Sebastiaan moved to London UK where he joined the Guy Barker Quintet/Septet and the Tommy Smith Quartet. In 2001 he joined Jamie Cullum and stayed for eight years, resulting in several world tours, three CDs and one DVD. He is currently teaching at BIMM London and Leeds College of Music and performing with Ray Gelato's Giants, Jacqui Dankworth. Lately he has also performed with Michel Legrand, Kurt Elling, Curtis Stigers and Diane Schuur. He is also the musical director of NABB (NYJO Academy Big Band) and has written articles for Drummer Magazine. Since April 2017 Sebastiaan has been also teaching at the Purcell School for Young Musicians. He is currently performing, recording and touring with Michel Legrand, Matt Bianco, Sarah McKenzie, Tommy Smith, Dave O'Higgins and Derek Nash, among others. Since March 2017 he also hosts a weekly Sunday jazz night at London's iconic music venue the Troubadour, where he regularly performs with his own bands.

Wednesday 11 August - Robert Plane (Clarinet) and the Solem String Quartet

Robert Plane is one of the UK’s best-know clarinettists. He made his BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall in 2011 with Simon Holt’s double concerto ‘Centauromachy’, and he won the Gramophone Award for his account of Finzi’s Concerto. He is joined tonight by the Solem Quartet, which has established itself as one of the most innovative and adventurous quartets of its generation, presenting daring feats of virtuosity within thoughtfully curated programmes. Rob was principal clarinet of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales until June 2021 and has held the same position with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia. He was recently appointed Head of Woodwind Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

The Solem String Quartet has established itself as one of the most innovative and adventurous quartets of its generation. Recently announced as an awardee of the Jerwood Arts Live Work Fund, one of 33 artists selected from more than 1200 applicants, the Solem Quartet takes its place amongst some of the UK’s brightest artistic voices, with award recipients spread across practices including music, theatre, opera, circus, dance, live art and performance.The programme for this concert is based round two wonderful but contrasting Clarinet Quintets. The first by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, written in 1895 when Coleridge-Taylor, aged 20, was a student at the Royal College of Music. His tutor, Sir Charles Stanford, claimed that no composer writing a contemporary Clarinet Quintet could escape the influence of Brahms’ fine example. It took Coleridge-Taylor just two months to prove him wrong, but this brilliant work has been sadly undervalued ever since. The second Quintet is Mozart’s A major quintet. Written just over 100 years earlier, in 1789, this masterpiece is one of the earliest works written for Clarinet and remains one of Mozart’s best-loved works.

PROGRAMME
Gurney Sleep, from Five Elizabethan Songs, arr. William Newell
Trad. Ca' the Yowes, arr. Steph Tress
Price Summer Moon, arr. William Newell
Coleridge-Taylor Clarinet Quintet in F sharp minor, op. 10
*** Interval ***
Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581

Thursday 12 August - Catrin Finch (Harp) and Suntou Susso (Kora)

We were very sorry to announce that Seckou Keita was obliged to pull out of the concert on 12 August because of Covid. However, his youngest brother Suntou Susso (also a professional kora player) kindly agreed to replace Seckou for the first half of the concert. Suntou was unable to be with us after the interval because he had another concert in Oxford later in the evening.

The theme of the concert was the same as it was – to explore the harp-based traditions of Wales and West Africa and to show how they can be blended into an exciting new sound. But because Catrin and Suntou had only a very limited time to practise together, and because Suntou had to leave at the interval, the form of the concert was amended as follows:

Suntou started with a solo kora set. As well as playing the kora he talked about the long and fascinating history of the kora and its role in West African society. Suntou and Catrin then joined forces to play together – this was a rare chance to hear real-time improvisation by two consummate professionals, and the results were stunning.

In the second half Catrin played the solo harp, with a programme based on her recent and brilliant three-episode programme on Radio 3 called “The Harp’s Journey”. The music included Astor Piazzola (who we heard at the Tango Siempre concert) and Paul Patterson (who we heard at the Galliard Ensemble concert).

Catrin Finch has won accolades the world over for her virtuosic performances with some of the world's finest orchestras. A fearless performer, she has also worked with Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté, and Colombian band Cimarrón, and switches from Bach's Goldberg Variations to traditional folk or joropo music with apparent ease.

Suntou Susso is a multi-instrumentalist: Kora player, percussionist, singer and composer from The Gambia. The Kora is unique to the ancient culture of the Griots of the Mandinka people. Griots have a unique societal role as oral historians, transmitting and preserving a people's culture through the generations in song, music and poetry.

Suntou's family includes some of the world's most well-respected West African musicians, including Seckou Keita, Solo Cissokho and Sura and Mamudou Susso. Suntou’s musical abilities are outstanding, perhaps unique for his generation. An in-demand and charismatic performer, he attracted attention as soon as he arrived on the UK music scene. Collaborations to date include:

Celebrated jazz singer Sarah-Jane Morris, guitarist Tony Remy - Ronnie Scotts, Ghazalaw -Indian-Welsh fusion project on BBC Radio 2, 3 and 6, Davide Mantovani, kora and modern jazz fusion, Opera singer Pumeza Matshikiza - performing on ITV's This Morning.

A key member of Norway-based 'Kristin Asbjornsen Trio', he co-composed and recorded a successful album, performing at Jazz festivals around Europe. As an acknowledged master of the Kora, Suntou was invited to perform alongside world famous Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour at the O2 in 2018. An impressive moment for any young musician and a seal of approval from the legendary artist.

Here in the UK he also performs classical Kora as a solo artist at sizeable theatres with orchestral productions and across the festival circuit including WOMAD, Hay festival, Beyond the Border etc.

In The Gambia, Suntou has a huge fanbase and has released successful singles and videos. These continue to receive daily exposure on national TV and radio. He also runs fun and engaging drumming and kora workshops in schools, colleges and universities to pass this knowledge on to the next generation.

Friday 13 August - The Corvus Vocal Consort and Ferio Saxophone Quartet

The Corvus Consort, a vocal ensemble based in Oxford and directed by founder Freddie Crowley, has established an enviable reputation for brilliance. Simon Carrington, a founder member of the King’s Singers, says: “The Corvus Consort is a marvel: glorious voices, expressive singing, highly creative and imaginative programming, inspired direction!”During lockdown, the Corvus Consort has joined forces with the Ferio Saxophone Quartet to explore the possibilities of voices and saxophones, especially in the Baroque and Renaissance periods. Tonight’s concert is one of the first times that the results of this collaboration will be presented live.

The concert will include works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Michael Bach, Johann Christoph Bach, Arcangelo Corelli, Henry Purcell, William Byrd, Orlande de Lassus and Heinrich Schütz.In the preface to his Geistliche Chor-Music of 1648, a collection of 29 sacred motets for a choir of five to seven voices, Heinrich Schütz suggested that some of the vocal parts could be replaced or doubled by other instruments. He would not have had saxophones in mind, as the saxophone would not be invented for another 200 years, but that’s not to say he wouldn’t have found them an excellent choice!

Schütz intended his collection to be a demonstration of good composition without basso continuo, focussing on contrapuntal techniques as the foundation of good composition. It is these contrapuntal techniques that make his and other Baroque and Renaissance music so infinitely adaptable into new forms, new instrumentations, whole new genres. The music of J. S. Bach is perhaps the most prolific example — symphonic arrangements of his organ music by Elgar, numerous guitarists performing transcriptions of the keyboard works, Jacques Loussier’s jazz interpretation of the Goldberg Variations, the Swingle Singers’ a-cappella organ fugue and Wendy Carlos on the Moog synthesiser in 1968 are just some examples.

Alongside these new arrangements, the Corvus Consort sings Baroque and Renaissance works in their untouched forms, and the Ferio Saxophone Quartet performs items from their 2018 disc of instrumental Baroque transcriptions ‘Revive’.

Saturday 14 August - Ultimate Elton and the Rocket Band

Saturday Night’s Alright! Some tribute artists look like their idol, some sound like their idol. Paul Bacon as Sir Elton John does both! Close your eyes and you won’t believe your ears, open your eyes and you won’t believe them either! You simply won’t find a closer tribute to Sir Elton John. Rapidly established as the foremost Elton John tribute act in the UK, Ultimate Elton and The Rocket Band present an uncannily accurate reproduction of the classic live shows of one of pop music’s most successful and best-loved artists - performances that also feature some of Elton’s actual costumes, bought from his ‘Out the Closet’ sales!

Ultimate Elton and the Rocket Band draw on Elton John’s amazing catalogue of hits to create a dynamic and powerful live celebration of Elton’s music featuring many of his classics. Ultimate Elton and The Rocket Band are much in demand at festivals and theatres throughout the UK, Europe and beyond. They are three times winner of the prestigious National Tribute Awards.

Don’t miss this truly spectacular show on the last night of the Winchfield Festival!