Music Festival Brochure

4 – 19 July Box Office 01242 227979 cheltenhamfestivals.com

Sponsors & Supporters Principal Sponsors

Major Sponsors

THe Steel Charitable Trust Working in Partnership

Festival Partners

Associate Sponsors

Berkhampstead School

Individual Supporters Lady Berkeley Jack & Dora Black Eleanor Budge Beryl Calver-Jones Michael & Angela Cronk Clive Coates & Ann Murray In-kind Sponsors

Corporate Membership The Daffodil Cotswold Life Glide Media Marketing Sign Solutions Lower Slaughter Manor Regular Funders

Edward & Alyson Gillespie Elizabeth Jacobs Roger Lane Graham & Eileen Lockwood Peter & Veronica Lofthouse Sir Peter & Lady Marychurch

Sir Michael & Lady McWilliam Mary Mackenzie, Richard Walton & friends Gerry Mattock Paul Miron Patricia Routledge Diana Woolley

Associate Supporters

Trusts and Foundations Alan Cadbury Trust Berners Trust D’Oyly Carte Grace Fry Foundation

George Budge Trust Holst Foundation Helena Oldacre Trust The Oldham Foundation RVW Trust

from the director I suppose it should be called Artist Spam – the unsolicited approaches festivals like us get from performers offering their wares. Some of them are spot-on, and result in the bookings they set out to get. Others – gig offers from a Palestinian hip-hop outfit, say, or some Celtic reggae from Solihull – are not for us.

A polite reply informs them of their misdirected interest. But how misdirected is it, actually, given that we describe ourselves as a ‘music festival’? Sure, 30 seconds of web research would have put them off our scent. But if we don’t explicitly say that we’re (basically) a classical music festival, are we mis-selling ourselves to the majority of people out there – you? – for whom a ‘music festival’ is more readily associated with hundreds of thousands of mud-caked campers and queues for the chemical toilets?

This Festival’s name, in over 60 years, has been through a few changes. For many years, it was the Cheltenham Festival of Contemporary British Music. Later it was just the Cheltenham Festival, and sometimes it’s been ‘international’ too.

Our current name, the Cheltenham Music Festival, remains fraught with issues.

For starters, what is the ‘jazz’ of our sibling Cheltenham Jazz Festival, if it isn’t also ‘music’?

And how wise would it be to call ourselves the Cheltenham Classical Music Festival?

The artist-spam might diminish. But in a programme like this year’s, where would it leave Romanian gypsy kings Taraf de Haidouks, Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell or our cabaret dinners with Tango Volcano and Fascinating Aida?

And how potentially unappealing is that word ‘classical’ anyway? For too many it seems to imply something that’s a bit dried up, exclusive and unattainably complex – sounds dreamed up by dead people and residing in a musical museum. Yet every single note of every single concert in this Festival will, I hope, blow these notions apart – this same classical music is vibrant, welcoming, absorbing and very much alive.

But if ‘classical music’ is a problem term, are the alternatives any less problematic?

Some call it ‘Serious Music’. Oh dear – can we possibly dare to take it, and ourselves, that seriously? Where is the joy of music in that, even if some classical music is extremely serious and beautifully miserable?

Some call it ‘Art Music’. I know where they’re coming from, but does that imply that any other kind of music isn’t ‘art’?

If people are drawn to this kind of music, as they seem to be, later on in life, should we call it ‘Grown Up Music’? But what of this Festival’s schools concerts or our family breakfast workshop, Cereal Samba?

If for most people a Music Festival takes place outdoors, why not call it the Cheltenham Indoor Music Festival? With the exception of all our weekend Surround Sound events, that would at least be true…

And I suppose if a Music Festival for most means, in its broadest sense, ‘Popular Music’, how about the Cheltenham Un-Popular Music Festival? The trouble is, quite a bit of the music featured in this 2008 Festival – Carmina Burana, The Planets, The Lark Ascending, Grieg’s Piano Concerto – really is very popular music.

So I’m not getting anywhere in this re-naming game. Any ideas?!

In the meantime, enjoy this brochure! Start with the route-map (page 6) which shows you around the Festival’s varied terrain. Travel through a programme featuring over 800 years of music – from pieces written in 1198 to ones which, as I write this, haven’t been started yet – and I’ll look forward to seeing you here at the Cheltenham Music Festival this July.

Director, Cheltenham Music Festival

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THANK YOU

It is only with the generosity of our audiences, ticket-buyers, loyal supporters, commercial sponsors and charitable trusts and foundations that Cheltenham Music Festival, and its sister Festivals are able to bring world-class culture to Cheltenham for the enjoyment of all, throughout the year.

With many thanks Donna Renney Chief Executive Cheltenham Festivals

Join Cheltenham Festival Society and Enjoy the Benefits of Belonging The Society members are the heart and soul of the Music Festival; they are involved in many things including: • Supporting the educational outreach programme • Sponsoring concerts and commissioning new works • Advising Festival visitors • Providing feedback to the organisers Enjoy the following benefits too, including: • Priority booking • A 10% discount during priority booking period (one ticket per concert per member) • Extra tickets at full price for each event during priority booking period • A regular newsletter providing advance information on forthcoming Festivals • A members’ reception at the Festival • Social activities and outings throughout the year Join now and qualify for discounts this year.

Simply add your subscription to the cost of your tickets on the booking form and your new membership card will accompany your tickets. If you are a UK income tax payer, please complete the Gift Aid declaration on the Booking Form which will help your donation go even further – for every £ you give, the Society can claim an extra 25p from the Inland Revenue.

A valid membership card must be presented when claiming discounts. If booking by post, your card will be returned with your tickets.

2008 Membership Rates Single Member £16 Couple £25 Young Person (u21) £2 Benefactor from £45 Benefactor couple from £70 Benefactors are invited to an exclusive event during the Festival with the Festival Director and artists. Further details, including the event price will be sent to Benefactors individually.

Contact Brian Carvell, CFS Membership Secretary, 3 Shaw Green Lane, Prestbury, Cheltenham GL52 3BS 01242 231475 brian@cheltenhamfestivalsociety.org.uk

Pittville Bistro with Fosters Events Open daily from 10am More of your favourite things at Cheltenham Music Festival again this year.

Morning coffee and home-made cakes, interval refreshments, pre-booking available, delicious lunches, afternoon tea and pre-concert suppers Only the finest ingredients, freshly prepared to cater for all tastes and to complete a wonderful day out. Bring friends and relax.

For private parties and corporate hospitality details please telephone 0800 1075588.

New for 2008 Three Fabulous Cabaret nights Fascinating Aida (see page 16) Trabuco: Virtuoso Venezuela (see page 21) Tango Dinner Cabaret (see page 26)

Mackwoods Fine Tea & Opera Saturday 12 July 3–5pm Free event in the Pittville Bistro

Mackwoods Fine Tea present an afternoon tea tasting and opera cabaret in the Pittville Bistro marquee Mackwoods, with its 160 year heritage, produces fine tea on their own estates in Sri Lanka. They provide a full range of unblended Single Estate Black Teas in different grades, as well as a full range of flavoured teas, infusions and connoisseur teas.

For further information on the free opera cabaret performance, go to cheltenhamfestivals.com and look out for the separate Mackwoods Fine Tea and Opera flyer.

Savings Investments Insurance

The Pavel Haas Quartet, photographed by Marco Borggreve.

The future holds few certainties. But inspiring music is one of them.

We’re supporting the stars of tomorrow in partnership with BBC Radio 3.

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Festival guide

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70 events, 16 days…Where do I start?

To help you navigate through it all, here are some festivals-within-a festival – some themed taster-menus, if you like – that isolate different strands and help you understand how all sorts of different parts make up this festival whole.

The Man from Down Ampney

The Folk Revivalists

Chamber-made Schubert

Ralph Vaughan Williams lived in Gloucestershire for only the first two years of his long life; but here’s to the great man who died 50 years ago in 1958:

Vaughan Williams wasn’t the only composer whose music learnt to speak the language of folksong. This Festival celebrates folk as they heard it then, and folk as we can hear it now. Here’s by no means an exhaustive list:

The three song cycles, sonatas and more:

The Lark Ascending Fri 4 Songs of Travel Sun 6 A cappella songs Tue 8 On Wenlock Edge Tue 8 Sinfonia Antartica Fri 11 Film: O Thou Transcendent Sat 12 Tallis Fantasia Sat 12 Norfolk Rhapsody Sun 13 Folksong settings Mon 14 Folksong suite Tue 15 2nd quartet Wed 16 Folksong settings Fri 18 The Lark Ascending Sat 19

SURROUND SOUND Family entertainment at the weekends – Samba, Gamelan, Brass Band, Big Band, Dance and Bulgarian choral singing.

Free and outdoors in Imperial Gardens.

See pages 34–35 for full details.

Britten/Grainger/BBC Phil Fri 4 Kodály/Lutosławski/BBC Phil Sat 5 Norwegian folksongs Sat 5 Carmina Burana Sun 6 Estonia and Veljo Tormis I Mon 7 Schubert Ensemble Tue 8 Time to Sing Wed 9 Michael Berkeley’s Iberian Notebook Thu 10 Estonia and Veljo Tormis II Thu 10 spnm’s Folk From Here Thu 10 Estonia and Veljo Tormis III Fri 11 Kathryn Tickell Band Fri 11 Venezuelan octet Trabuco Sat 12 Bartok/Holst/Rautavaara/Veress Sat 12 Sibelius/Bartok/Dvorˇák Sun 13 Film: Akenfield Sun 13 Calefax: La Spagna Mon 14 Grainger/Holst/Kodály Mon 14 Grainger/Bartok films Tue 15/Sat 19 Grainger/Holst/Royal Marines Tue 15 Ligeti Bagatelles Fri 18 Hungarian Dances Sat 19 Taraf de Haidouks Sat 19 Berio folksongs Sat 19

Sonata D.959 Ingrid Fliter Mon 7 Sonata D.960 Marc-André Hamelin Thu 10 Arpeggione Sonata Danjulo Ishizaka/Shai Wosner Mon 14 String Quintet Pavel Haas Quartet/Ishizaka Wed 16 Octet Festival Academy Thu 17 Sonata D.894 Paul Lewis Thu 17 Die Schöne Müllerin Allan Clayton/Paul Lewis Thu 17 Schwanengesang Florian Boesch/Roger Vignoles Fri 18 Winterreise Mark Padmore/Paul Lewis Sat 19

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The Manchester Sound Featured composer Peter Maxwell Davies studied there in the ‘50s, and Sir John Manduell – Cheltenham Festival Director for 25 years and 80 this year – was the Royal Northern College of Music’s first Principal: BBC Philharmonic Fri 4/Sat 5 RNCM Wind Orchestra Mon 7 Maxwell Davies in residence Tue 8 – Sun 13 Elias String Quartet (RNCM alumni) Wed 9 Barbirolli String Quartet (RNCM alumni) Wed 9 Lulu Yang (RNCM student) Fri 11

Festival guide

Ancient…

…and Modern

From 12th century polyphony to 18th century opera arias, if you like your music to have been around for a while, these are for you:

A Cheltenham speciality right from the first festival in 1945 – anything from the quite recent to the brand new:

Trio Medieval Sat 5 Rolf Lislevand Ensemble Sat 5 Film: The Full Monteverdi Sat 5 The Dowland Project Sun 6 Spem in Alium Mon 7 Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir Thu 10 Sarah Connolly/La Serenissima Sun 13 Calefax – medieval dances Mon 14

Manchester Camerata Sat 12

Reich Sextet Sun 6 Messiaen Et Exspecto Mon 7 Maxwell Davies in residence Tue 8 – Sun 13 spnm’s Folk From Here Thu 10 Arvo Pärt Thu 10 Veljo Tormis Fri 11 Turnage premiere Sat 12 Tunde Jegede premiere Tue 15 Joe Duddell premiere Tue 15 Cheryl Frances Hoad premiere Wed 16 Festival Academy Fri 18/Sat 19 + three premieres by spnm shortlist composers Tue 8/Wed 9/Fri 18

TICKET OFFERS 5 x 5 = 25 We’ve picked out five concerts that anyone under 25 can buy for £5 each.

They’re concerts that we’re sure will make a big impression – if you give it a go. Concession code U25.

Rolf Lislevand Ensemble Sat 5 Tallis and Messiaen Mon 7 Estonians in the Abbey Thu 10 Manchester Camerata Sat 12 Quartet for the End of Time Fri 18

Town Hall Book four separate Town Hall events and get the cheapest free.

Concession code TH4. Excludes Carmina Burana, Sunday 6 July.

See Booking Information page for full ticket offer and concession information.

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ECM at the Cheltenham Music Festival From The Dowland Project to Rolf Lislevand’s Nuove Musiche, Trio Mediaeval’s performance of Norwegian folk songs to Arvo Pärt and Veljo Tormis sung by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, ECM confounds the divide between ‘old’ and ‘new’.

Trio Mediaeval Folk Songs

The Dowland Project Romaria

Rolf Lislevand Nuove Musiche

Anna Maria Friman: soprano Linn Andrea Fuglseth: soprano Torunn Østrem Ossum: soprano with Birger Mistereggen: percussion

John Potter: tenor Milos Valent: violin, viola John Surman: soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, recorders Stephen Stubbs: baroque guitar, vihuela

Rolf Lislevand: archlute, baroque guitar, theorbo Arianna Savall: triple harp, voice Pedro Estevan: percussion Bjørn Kjellemyr: colascione, double-bass Guido Morini: organ, clavichord Marco Ambrosini: nyckelharpa Thor-Harald Johnson: chitarra battente

Andrew Stewart, Classic FM Magazine ECM 2003 CD 476 6179

With this, its third mesmeric and magical album,The Dowland Project applies its modus operandi -developing new realisations of early music through improvisation and experimental interaction -to a selection of pieces from the early -13th to late -16th centuries...

Utterly compelling and ravishingly beautiful.

Barry Witherden, BBC Music Magazine ECM1970 CD 476 5780

e

The expansion and contraction of arranged and improvised elements allows the original Baroque material to breathe authentically in our own time, resulting in a phantasmagoria whose haunting effects are only accentuated by ECM’s beautifully spacious recording...

This disc rocks, albeit urbanely.

William Yeoman, Gramophone ECM1922 CD 476 3049

Purchase from your local ECM Dealer: Sounds Good, 7 Henrietta Street, Cheltenham, GL50 4AA Mail order from Music Connection: 01233 334884 or email musconnection@aol.com For a free catalogue and mailings on forthcoming ECM releases contact: ECM Promotion, New Note, Pinnacle Building, Teardrop Centre, London Road, Swanley, Kent, BR8 8TS or email david@newnote.com ECM Records, Postfach 600 331, D - 81203 München www.ecmrecords.com

Photo: Gérald Minkoff

A decade’s exploration lies behind this terrific album and its hypnotic parade of timeless Norwegian folksongs, where echoes of past and present richly coalesce. Unmissable.

BBC PHILHARMONIC DOuble Bill Friday4July Priya Mitchell Violin Cheltenham Bach Choir Michal Dvorzynski Conductor Britten Suite on English Folk Tunes ‘A time there was…’

Grainger Pastoral; Gum-Suckers’ March Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending Holst The Planets

Priya Mitchell

Saturday5July Aleksandar Madžar Piano Michal Dvorzynski Conductor

Aleksandar Madžar

Michal Dvorzynski

Smetana Vltava from Ma Vlast Lutosławski Concerto for Orchestra Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor Kodály Dances of Galanta The 2008 Cheltenham Music Festival gets off to a powerful start with a double bill from Manchester-based BBC Philharmonic, enjoying a sustained period of artistic good health.

Young Polish maestro Michal Dvorzynski leads them in two programmes of distinct musical character and geography – a pleasurechest of gorgeous tunefulness where the folksong interests of Britten, Grainger, Kodály and the young Lutosławski combine with the serenity of VW’s Lark, the striking imagination of Holst’s planetary suite and romantic jewels from Smetana and Grieg.

BBC PHILHARMONIC Town Hall Friday 4 July 7.30pm M1 Saturday 5 July 7 pm M6 £32 / £27 / £22 / £17 / £12

Friday 4 July Explore Festival Director Meurig Bowen and Christopher Cook introduce the festival programme in its entirety.

Saturday 5 July Drawing Room 6.15pm M5 Free Tickets must be booked in advance

Supported by The Oldham Foundation Saturday 5 July

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Saturday5JULY ECM in Cheltenham

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A weekend of Early Music that’s right up to the minute

The Munich-based label ECM, established by legendary producer Manfred Eicher in 1969, made its name with seminal recordings by Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea and Jan Garbarek. More recently, ECM New Series has explored a fascinating range of classical repertoire – from Andras Schiff’s Beethoven and the Zehetmair Quartet’s Schumann to revelatory, often definitive recordings of Arvo Pärt.

ECM Weekend Pass Buy all 3 and save up to 10%.

See Booking Information page for full details.

ECM’s recordings of ‘early music’ – anything from solo Bach to the Hilliard Ensemble Officium project with Jan Garbarek – have been no less engaging. And the label’s jazz roots have invariably given this very old music a startlingly new personality – no better illustrated than by the three performances featured here.

Sacred music from 13th and 14th century England and traditional folk songs from Norway.

ECM 1 TRIO MEDIEVAL All Saints Church 12noon M2 £15 Unreserved Supported by Patricia Routledge

Norwegian folk songs and medieval ballads have complemented the core sacred repertoire of Trio Medieval since they first started performing together a decade ago.

Their latest recording for ECM focuses on this repertoire, and the results are stunning – the purity of their voices and immaculate blend combining with the simplicity and pathos of their country’s folksong. ‘Early Music’ and ‘Folk’ have never combined more beautifully.

Rolf Lislevand archlute, baroque guitar, theorbo Björn Kjellemyr colascione, double bass Thor-Harald Johnsen chittara battente David Mayoral percussion Arianna Savall triple harp, voice

Rolf Lislevand

Arianna Savall

ECM 2 ROLF LISLEVAND ENSEMBLE Pittville Pump Room 3pm M3 £20 / £16 / £13

Film THE FULL MONTEVERDI Pittville Campus 5pm M4 £5

SURROUND SOUND Imperial Gardens Free

In 2006, Norwegian Rolf Lislevand released his Nuove Musiche album on ECM, a gloriously free and fresh re-interpretation of early baroque music from Italy, Spain, Germany and England.

This is a project full of jazz- and folk-like fantasy – combined with gorgeous sonorities that have lutes and guitars joining triple harp, bass and the soaring voice of Arianna Savall.

I Fagiolini’s performance of Monteverdi’s 4th Book of Madrigals was a huge success when presented at The Daffodil in the 2005 Festival. The subsequent popularity of this hugely imaginative and affecting reflection on contemporary love led to a special reworking for the screen

by John La Bouchardière – described in The Observer as a ‘raw, emotional striptease’.

11am – 12noon & 2pm – 3pm Gloucestershire Youth Dance 12noon – 1pm Cleeve Samba See pages 34–35 for further details

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SUNday6JULY

John Potter Tenor John Surman Saxophones, Bass Clarinet Miloš Valent Violin, Viola Stephen Stubbs Lute, Vihuela After his hugely successful collaboration with jazz saxophonist Jan Garbarek, as a member of the Hilliard Ensemble, John Potter has teamed up in more recent years with another saxophone legend, John Surman, to bring a fresh interpretative voice to a range of renaissance and baroque repertoire.

Their newly-released ECM album Romaria features Slovakian violinist Miloš Valent, equally at home in early music and folk-gypsy styles of Eastern Europe. Together, they explore love songs, chants and motets by Orlando di Lasso, Josquin Desprez and others, including the anonymous composers of the Carmina Burana manuscript.

‘Mesmeric improvisations…not bland crossover, but a genuinely enriching cross-fertilisation’ The Sunday Times

ECM 3 THE DOWLAND PROJECT Pittville Pump Room 11am M8 £20 / £16 / £13

Supported by Edward & Alyson Gillespie

This isn’t so much about Snap, Crackle, Pop! than Crash, Bang Wallop! Bring a cereal box and spoon along and let your breakfast become your very own percussion instrument for the morning – though Mike Sallis and his team of rhythmbusters will have lots of other things for you to hit, shake, bounce or generally make a noise with too.

Alongside this interactive workshop session, percussionists Richard Benjafield and Chris Brannick – getting ready for the evening Town Hall concert – will treat everyone to a short display of jawdropping percussion wizardry.

FAMILY EVENT CEREAL SAMBA Town Hall 9.30am M7 £5 for children (bring your parents along for free)

Berkhampstead School

11am – 12noon Gloucestershire Youth Jazz Orchestra Mike Sallis Director 12noon – 3pm Gamelan Community Players Jonathan Roberts Director 3pm – 4pm Gloucestershire Academy of Music Glyn Oxley Director See pages 34–35 for further details

SURROUND SOUND Imperial Gardens Free

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SUNday6JULY

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A SHROPSHIRE LAD & SONGS OF TRAVEL Pittville Pump Room 3pm M9 £18 / £14 / £11 Supported by The Alan Cadbury Trust

Matthew Rose Bass Gareth Hancock Piano Grainger Shallow Brown Britten Folksong settings Butterworth A Shropshire Lad Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel Matthew Rose is a remarkable singer. He has, literally, huge presence, and a voice of dark, nutty hues which has the power to overwhelm. He was a finalist in the 2007 Wigmore International Singing Competition, and has prestigious opera and concert engagements stacking up in the future. Hear him in this earthy English programme, and be stunned by this vocal force of nature.

Matthew Rose

Ailish Tynan Soprano Daniel Norman Tenor Alan Opie Baritone Gareth Hancock Conductor Cheltenham Festival Chorus Gloucestershire County Junior Choir TewkesburyYouth Choir Three Strange Angels Percussion and Keyboards Ensemble Grainger The Warriors Steve Reich Sextet Orff Carmina Burana

Ailish Tynan

Alan Opie

CARMINA BURANA Town Hall 7pm M11 £25 / £20 / £15 / £10

Over 200 singers come together specially for this roof-raising performance of Carmina Burana, performed here in Carl Orff’s version with pianos and percussion accompaniment.

Two other very different composers of the 20th century, both passionate in their own ways about writing for multiple keyboards and tuned percussion, share the first half.

Explore An audio tour of the eccentrically wonderful world of Percy Grainger by Festival Director Meurig Bowen Town Hall Drawing Room 6pm M10 Free Tickets must be booked in advance

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MONday7JULY

Schubert Four Impromptus Op.90 Chopin Scherzo Op.54 Ballade Op.52 Schubert Sonata D.959 Admired by Brendel and Argerich, and with the first disc of a new EMI contract just out, Argentinian pianist Ingrid Fliter comes to Cheltenham with a growing level of acclaim and excitement amongst the piano aficionados.

Critic Norman Lebrecht describes her as a ‘one-off, the kind of pianist we have not seen in years…I’ve had it with the typewriter kind of pianist.

Ingrid Fliter makes the hair on my nape stand out straight. She dares and, usually, she wins.’

As a prelude to the visit by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, the Estonian Television Girls Choir performs music by their country’s two most celebrated living composers, Arvo Pärt and Veljo Tormis. For a country that famously progressed to its independence in the late 1980s with the ‘Singing Revolution’, this choir of girls aged 15-21 represents one of the highpoints of a Baltic culture steeped in folksong.

INGRID FLITER BBC RADIO 3 NEW GENERATION ARTIST Pittville Pump Room 11am M12 £18 / £14 / £11 Supported by Mr & Mrs Michael Cronk

Recorded for future broadcast

Estonian TeleVision Girls Choir Pittville Pump Room 3pm M13 £7.50

Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra Timothy Reynish Conductor The Oriel Singers Tim Morris Director St Cecilia Singers Russell Burton Director Carleton Etherington Organ Tallis Spem in Alium; O sacrum convivium Messiaen O sacrum convivium; Le banquet celeste; Offrande et Alleluia Finale Duruflé Four Latin motets Messiaen Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum Taking advantage of the magnificent acoustic of Tewkesbury Abbey, this programme journeys from the polychoral splendour of Tallis’ 40-part motet Spem in Alium to Messiaen’s colossal memorial to the dead of two World Wars. Written in 1964, and scored for massed woodwind, brass and chorus of gongs, Et Exspecto is a work of ritual and awe – as monumental and majestic as the stone spaces of Tewkesbury Abbey.

Explore Get in tune for Messiaen’s Indonesian-inspired soundworld of bells and gongs with an al fresco performance by the Gamelan Community Players Tewkesbury Abbey Grounds 6pm onwards Free

FROM SPEM TO ET EXSPECTO Tewkesbury Abbey 7.30pm M14 £25 / £20 / £18 / £15 / £8 / £5

Lie back and think of…

The back portion of Tewkesbury Abbey has its seats removed for this performance, and the £8 tickets allow for bringing a cushion or blanket and soaking up the sounds and the Abbey ceiling

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TUESday8JULY

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com Ilya Gringolts Violin Aleksandar Madžar Piano Peter Maxwell Davies Sonata (English premiere) Schumann Sonata No.3 in A minor Bartok Solo Violin Sonata Beethoven Sonata No.10 in G major, Op. 96

Ilya Gringolts

GRINGOLTS & MADŽAR Pittville Pump Room 11am M15 £20 / £16 / £13 Supported by Eleanor Budge & The George Budge Trust

Russian virtuoso Gringolts and Belgrade-born Madžar come to Cheltenham with Maxwell Davies’ brand-new sonata, premiered at the St Magnus Festival in Orkney just days before. The Schumann and Beethoven sonatas are complemented by Gringolts’ solo Bartok, a major workout which Gringolts has rather made his own. ‘There was plenty of Magyar fire’, wrote The Strad critic of one performance, ‘but with serenity to balance the violent outbursts. This was wonderfully musical playing of a work which can too often be a display of skin-of-the-teeth technical heroics.’

Wells Cathedral School Chamber Choir Nigel Perrin Director Music by Peter Maxwell Davies, Britten, Kodály, Bardos, Peter Dickinson, Vaughan Williams and an spnm shortlist composer

WELLS A CAPPELLA All Saints Church 4.30pm M16 £6 Supported by The Steel Charitable Trust

Wells Cathedral School Chamber Choir is one of the jewels of this specialist music school.

Their programme includes Britten’s Hymn to St Cecilia, Peter Dickinson’s Tiananman 1989 and two works by Maxwell Davies. O Magnum Mysterium was written in 1960 when he was Head of Music at Cirencester Grammar School, and the charming Lullabye for Lucy was composed in 1981 to honour the first child born in the Orkney valley of Rackwick for over 30 years.

The Schubert Ensemble James Gilchrist Tenor Grainger Songs Gurney Songs Vaughan Williams On Wenlock Edge Martin Butler Sequenza Notturna Dvorˇák Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81

ON WENLOCK EDGE Pittville Pump Room 7.30pm M17 £25 / £20 / £15 Pittville Bistro – Drinks and light refreshments only

The Schubert Ensemble, celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2008, makes a welcome return to Cheltenham with James Gilchrist, one of Britain’s finest ‘English’ tenors, for Vaughan Williams’ glorious settings of A.E.Housman. An all-English first half, that includes Martin Butler’s superbly atmospheric nightpiece, is followed by Dvorˇák’s piano quintet, equally infused with his own country’s folksong heritage.

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WEdNESDay9JULY

Britten Three Divertimenti Mozart Quartet in C major, K.465 ‘Dissonance’ Schumann Quartet in A major, Op. 41/3 With its members coming from France, Scotland and Sweden, the Elias String Quartet was formed a decade ago at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Following a year of further study in Cologne with the Alban Berg Quartet, they are now quartet-inresidence at Sheffield’s Music in the Round.

A recent disc of Mendelssohn quartets has been widely praised, and the quartet is fast becoming one of their generation’s most highly-regarded and widely-travelled quartets.

ELIAS STRING QUARTET Pittville Pump Room 11am M18 £18 / £14 / £11 Supported by Elizabeth Jacobs

Beethoven Quartet in C minor, Op 18/4 spnm shortlist composer New Work Joe Cutler Folk Music Brahms Quartet in C minor, Op. 51/1 This is the day of the multi-national, Manchester-trained quartet – because the Barbirollis come from Canada, Wales, Australia and New Zealand, and formed at the RNCM too, five years after the Elias.

A recent Purcell Room concert had Geoff Brown of The Times writing: ‘I’d rush to hear this superb quartet again…However crowded the field, there’s always a place for classical musicians so tonally robust and rhythmically precise.’

BARBIROLLI STRING QUARTET St Peter’s Church, Winchcombe 3pm M19 £9 Supported by The Steel Charitable Trust

BBC Radio 3’s Discovering Music presents Psappha Kelvin Thomas Baritone Charles Hazlewood Conductor/Presenter Peter Maxwell Davies Eight Songs for a Mad King With its illuminating take-apart, put-backtogether format, Radio 3’s Discovering Music presents one of the 20th century’s most iconic music theatre pieces – a brave and brilliant study of George III created years before Alan Bennett’s own masterpiece. Master-presenter Hazlewood will have the added advantage of gaining extra insight from the composer himself, resident in Cheltenham for several days.

THE MAXNESS OF KING GEORGE Pittville Pump Room 6pm M20 Free Tickets must be booked in advance

Recorded for future broadcast

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TIME TO SING Town Hall 6.30pm M21 £5 Adults Free for Children

The folk strand of this year’s Festival is captured in this massed-singing project for nearly 250 primary schoolchildren. Following a series of singing workshops led by vocal practitioner Liz Terry, who masterminded last year’s Amerisong, this culminating performance is a speciallysequenced journey through Britain’s folksong heritage – from shanties to skipping songs, from seasonal celebration to epic storytelling.

See page 36 for full Education funding credits

PUMP ROOM CABARET FASCINATING AIDA Pittville Pump Room & Pittville Bistro M22 7pm £60 performance, three-course dinner and wine M23 9pm £20 / £16 / £13 performance only

25 years ago, in a rather grubby sitting room in north-west London, Dillie Keane was suffering from a hangover and trying to persuade a couple of chums to sing with her at the local wine bar.

She succeeded, and Fascinating Aida was born.

Now, 25 years, 1 alto, 3 mezzo-sopranos, and 786 sopranos later, she is back. Or rather, they are back. Adele Anderson, the longsuffering Diva of the Deep, and Liza Pulman, the Canary of Crouch End, are joining Dillie for a bit of fun and probably a few bum notes.

‘Listen, this isn’t a major come-back,’ they say. ‘It’s a bit of fun to celebrate quarter of a century. We’ve written quite a few new songs, we will definitely sing a few old songs, we are still grouchy, rude, charming and smutty beneath our well brought-up surface.’

So come along and thrill once again as the three of them dust off their vocal chords. Laugh as the girls defy time, gravity and their zippers to waft you on song through the hell that is modern life. There ain’t anyone else like ‘em.

Due to the loss of their unique, irreplaceable, and greatly loved pianist, Russell Churney, Dillie will be playing throughout.

Pittville Bistro

Fosters at Pittville Bistro Back by popular demand!

For bookings and availability, call 0800 1075588

Passionate about Food!

Fosters’ award-winning chefs design mouth-watering menus to suit all pockets, tastes and occasions.

As specialists in top quality society, corporate and public catering, we understand the importance of good food and thoughtful service and our tradition for excellence goes back nearly 50 years.

Alongside Pittville Bistro, our impressive portfolio of distinctive venues includes Berkeley Castle, Sudeley Castle, Brunel’s SS Great Britain, Royal Bath & West Show, Elkstone Manor, Lord Mayor’s Mansion House, Bristol and Gloucestershire County Cricket ground.

Come to the Pittville Bistro – where the quality doesn’t stop with the music.

Box Office 01242 227979

THURSDAY10JULY

Haydn Sonata in F major, Hob XV11/23 Haydn Sonata in B flat major, Hob XV1/41 Weissenberg Sonate en Etat de Jazz Schubert Sonata in B flat major, D.960 French-Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin makes a welcome return after his sensational performances in the 2007 Festival. The Haydn and Schubert sonatas frame a vibrant work by the French-Bulgarian composer/ pianist Alexis Weissenberg, bound to display Hamelin’s legendary virtuosity to the full.

‘Hamelin’s phenomenal technique is never an end in itself. This is playing of elegance, subtlety and a subversive Haydnesque wit…

It is just the sort of Haydn playing – colourful, inventive, impish – that should win these sonatas a wider following.’ The Daily Telegraph

MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN Pittville Pump Room 11am M24 £25 / £20 / £15 Supported by Graham & Eileen Lockwood

JS Bach Suite No. 1 in G, BWV 1007 Michael Berkeley Iberian Notebook Kodály Solo Sonata, Op.8 In the exquisite, compact surrounds of Quenington’s church, cellist Thomas Carroll gives a programme that includes Michael Berkeley’s Iberian Notebook. With movement titles such as ‘Malaga (on the day of a bullfight)’ and ‘Three Portuguese Palaces near Sintra’, this suite is a musical record of his travels through Spain, Portugal and Morocco in 1975. ‘In the same way that a photographer snaps or an artist sketches, so I jotted down odd snatches of melody heard in fields, orchards and, more often, bars!’

Afternoon teas will be served in the Pool House, The Old Rectory gardens, opposite St Swithin’s Church after the concert.

THOMAS CARROLL St Swithin’s Church, Quenington 3pm M25 £9 Supported by Mr & Mrs Stephen Asquith The Steel Charitable Trust

Imagine delicious summer lunches and strawberries and cream, crisp fresh salads and hand-carved meats and fish, British cheeses and gourmet sandwiches, refreshing teas and scrumptious cakes, wholesome hot dishes and great coffee.

Pittville Bistro

Whether you’re looking for a wonderful night out, morning coffee or simply a good lunch, the Pittville Bistro is the place to come.

Fully licensed bar Credit card facilities available

Open from 10 am daily 5–19 July

For bookings and availability, call 0800 1075588

Recorded for future broadcast

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THURSDay10JULY

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir Paul Hillier Director Leonin/12th century Alleluia Nativitas School of Notre Dame Veni creator spiritus Arvo Pärt Seven Magnificat antiphons Anon. English (C.14th) Angelus ad virginem Pärt Magnificat Pärt Triodion St Godric (d.1170) Three songs Veljo Tormis The Bishop and the Pagan Perotin (c.1200) Salvatoris hodie Pärt Nunc dimittis

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir ARVO PÄRT IN THE ABBEY

We welcome to Cheltenham one of the world’s great professional choirs. In the first of their two concerts, they focus on the contrasts and connections of the earliest Anglo-French polyphony with sacred music by their country’s two greatest living composers. Arvo Pärt’s celebrated religious music has captured the spirit of his medieval predecessors within a unique and affecting contemporary style; and Veljo Tormis’ plainchant-imbued The Bishop and the Pagan was originally composed for The King’s Singers.

Tewkesbury Abbey 7pm M26 £30 / £25 / £20 / £16 / £9 / £5 Lie back and think of…

See page 13 for details of this non-seated area

Kathryn Tickell Northumbrian Pipes, Fiddle Jonathan Meyer Sitar Kuljit Bhamra Tabla, Dhol, Percussion Julian Sutton Melodeon Marie Fielding Fiddle

Kathryn Tickell

Kuljit Bhamra

TICKELL & BHAMRA FOLK FROM HERE Pittville Pump Room 9.30pm M27 £16 / £13 / £10

Folk From Here is a brand-new project curated by spnm that explores the possibilities of combining Indian and British folk traditions. Led by the virtuoso skills of pipist Kathryn Tickell and percussionist Kuljit Bhamra, a new repertoire that integrates their separate traditions has been devised by the performers themselves, and by four spnm composers, Adam Melvin, Laurence Rose, Nick Redfern and Jonathan Booty.

Produced in association with

Box Office 01242 227979 Tormis Laulusild Kreek Three folk songs Pärt Dopo le Vittoria Sibelius Rakastava Sisask Gloria Patri Tormis St John’s Day songs for Midsummer’s Eve The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir’s second programme focuses on their country’s hugely important folk singing tradition – forged

by Cyrillus Kreek in the early 20th century, and given remarkable new life by Veljo Tormis since the early 1970s. Tormis’s settings, as much a mighty ethnographic study as a body of music, have enormous charm, pathos, inventiveness and humour.

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir FOLK FROM THERE Pittville Pump Room 11am M28 £20 / £16 / £13

Explore Veljo Tormis in pre-concert conversation with Meurig Bowen Pittville Pump Room 10.30am Free For ticketholders

Chinese pianist Lulu Yang came to Britain at the age of 14, and is now in her fourth year at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Her programme includes Brahms’ Handel Variations, a Chopin Nocturne, Liszt’s E flat Paganini Etude and some Debussy Preludes.

FRIDAY11JULY

Veljo Tormis

LULU YANG Pittville Pump Room 3pm M29 £7.50 Supported by The Steel Charitable Trust A China Now event

Richard Hickox Conductor Susan Gritton Soprano Alina Ibragimova Violin Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin Bruch Violin Concerto No.1 Vaughan Williams Sinfonia Antartica Much is made of Vaughan Williams’s Englishness – his association with folksong, hymnody and Tudor polyphony. But this concert marks the European aspects of his musical upbringing, and his respective studies in 1897 and 1907 with Bruch in Berlin and Ravel in Paris. Of all the symphonies that could be performed in Cheltenham this anniversary year, Sinfonia Antartica, derived from his 1948 score for Scott of the Antarctic, is the most local. Two of Scott’s companions on the ill-fated voyage – Edward Wilson and Raymond Priestley – were from Cheltenham and Tewkesbury.

Kathryn Tickell Northumbrian Pipes, Fiddle Ian Stephenson Guitars Peter Tickell Fiddle Julian Sutton Melodeon The sound of the Northumbrian pipes is one of the loveliest of all - mellow and inviting, never strident. With twelve albums over two decades, and wide-ranging collaborations with the likes of Sting, Andy Sheppard and Peter Maxwell Davies, Kathryn Tickell is one of the great ambassadors for contemporary British folk music around the world.

Richard Hickox

Susan Gritton

Alina Ibragimova

TEWKESBURY ABBEY FUNDRAISER PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA Tewkesbury Abbey 7.30pm M30 £50* / £32 / £26 / £20 / £15 / £10 * premium package with champagne interval reception

KATHRYN TICKELL BAND Town Hall 8pm M31 £20 / £16 / £12 / £8

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SaturDay12JULY

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com J.S. Bach Prelude, Fugue and Allegro BWV 998 Tippett The Blue Guitar Mark-AnthonyTurnage Air with Variations (World premiere) Piazzolla Verano Porteño & La muerte del Angel Australian-born, Cotswolds-resident guitarist Craig Ogden is the most accomplished successor of his generation to Julian Bream and John Williams. His playing has an ease and grace which conceals total technical mastery, and in this varied programme, he gives the world premiere of MarkAnthony Turnage’s first work for solo guitar.

‘Ogden’s touch is light but the effect is powerful. His fingers flick across the strings plucking fine notes with the ease and speed of a conjuror.’ Brisbane Courier Mail

CRAIG OGDEN Pittville Pump Room 11am M32 £16 / £13 / £10 Reserved Recorded for future broadcast

Supported by Paul Miron and Peter & Veronica Lofthouse

FILM O Thou Transcendent Pittville Campus 2pm M33 £5

SURROUND SOUND Imperial Gardens Free

Explore Mark-Anthony Turnage in pre-concert conversation with Christopher Cook Pittville Pump Room 10.30am Free for ticketholders

Introduced by Tony Palmer Director First screened on Channel Five at the unusual time of 9am on New Year’s Day 2008, this is an opportunity to watch Tony Palmer’s acclaimed biography of Vaughan Williams at a more comfortable time. Three hours long, O Thou Transcendent is a generous helping for VW enthusiasts. It features archive performances from Boult and Barbirolli, specially recorded repertoire extracts, newly discovered interviews with VW himself and contributions from a range of people that includes Harrison Birtwistle, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys.

2–3pm Vocal Antics Hilary Davies Director 3–5pm Tewkesbury Town Band See pages 34–35 for further details

Box Office 01242 227979

SaturDay12JULY

Manchester Camerata Gordan Nikolitch Director / Violin Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis Einojuhani Rautavaara The Fiddlers Holst St Paul’s Suite Sibelius Rakastava (The Lover) Bartok Divertimento Veress Transylvanian Stamping Dance Folk tunes – and folk fiddling – come together with local connections in this programme of rich and vital string orchestra repertoire.

Vaughan Williams’ expansive masterpiece was premiered in Gloucester Cathedral almost a century ago, and Cheltenham-raised Holst composed his attractively folky suite for pupils at St Paul’s Girls School in London.

Finnish composer Rautavaara – 80 in 2008 – based his vivid, rollicking suite on 17th century fiddlers’ tunes, and Bartok’s 1939 Divertimento brilliantly combines modernist and folklike influences. The Manchester Camerata, directed by London Symphony Orchestra leader Gordan Nikolitch, finish with a short dance by one of Bartok’s pupils, Sandor Veress, who in turn taught Ligeti and Kurtág…

Hungarian Folk Fiddler

Manchester camerata STRINGS FANTASIA Town Hall 7.30pm M35 £25 / £21 / £17 / £12 / £8

Recorded for future broadcast

Featuring folk instruments like the cuatro (fourstring guitar) and the lute-like bandola, Trabuco brings together eight of the finest classical and traditional performers in Venezuela.

Their astonishing repertoire focuses on Venezuelan ‘joropo’, derived over many centuries from styles as diverse as Spanish Baroque music, Arabic dances, flamenco, melaguenas and fandangos. This is music to make you smile and dance, to mesmerise and dazzle.

TRABUCO VIRTUOSO VENEZUELA Pittville Pump Room & Pittville Bistro M36 6.30pm £60 performance, two-course dinner and wine M37 8pm £20 / £16 / £13 performance only

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SUNDay13JULY

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

MAX & HELLAWELL IN CONVERSATION Pittville Bistro 10am M38 £5

Even as Master of the Queen’s Music, Peter Maxwell Davies has not shied away from speaking his mind about pressing cultural issues.

Equally eloquent and provocative on such matters is Cheltenham-raised composer Piers Hellawell, Professor at Queen’s University Belfast and recent visiting Gresham Professor.

Together, in this informal breakfast-andcoffee setting, their discussions about the state of ‘serious’ culture and music education will never be less than fascinating.

Piers Hellawell

PRIMROSE PIANO QUARTET Pittville Pump Room 11am M39 £18 / £14 / £11

Dohnányi String Serenade in C major, Op.10 Peter Maxwell Davies Piano Quartet (World premiere) Brahms Piano Quartet No 1 in G minor, Op.25 Quilter Gipsy Life Fantasy Quintet After their successful appearance in the 2007 Festival, the Primrose Piano Quartet returns for a folk/gypsy-influenced programme that includes the world premiere of Maxwell Davies’ new piano quartet.

Peter Maxwell Davies

Supported by Sir Michael & Lady McWilliam

FILM PETER HALL’S AKENFIELD Pittville Campus 2pm M40 £5

With Tippett’s Corelli Fantasia serving as the backdrop to this portrait of a Suffolk village, Peter Hall’s screen adaptation of Ronald Blythe’s extraordinary document of oral history contains unforgettable moments of humour, vital humanity and visual riches.

And whereas, when it was made it was about the past viewed from the present, that present – rural England in 1974 – is now in itself, nostalgically, a captured moment of something lost.

Box Office 01242 227979

SUNDAY13JULY

Gloucestershire Youth Orchestra Glyn Oxley Conductor Sibelius Finlandia Vaughan Williams A Norfolk Rhapsody Bartok Romanian Dances Dvorˇák Symphony No.8 The GYO, under their new music director Glyn Oxley, precede Dvorˇák’s glorious 8th symphony with three works that reflect, in their own nationally distinctive ways, the folk strand of this year’s Festival.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE YOUTH ORCHESTRA Pittville Pump Room 4.30pm M41 £7.50 Supported by The Steel Charitable Trust

Sarah Connolly Mezzo-soprano La Serenissima Adrian Chandler Director/Violin Programme to include: Handel Concerta Grosso Op.3, No.2 Vivaldi Arias from Orlando Furioso, Griselda & Juditha Triumphans Handel Opera and Oratorio arias Vivaldi Sinfonia from Ottone in villa; Concerto in F, RV 569 This programme showcases Sarah Connolly’s superlative singing of Handel – her voice rich and supple, her manner heroic and affecting – and period instrument orchestra La Serenissima’s special affinity with Venice’s most distinguished musical son.

‘Connolly seals her reputation as our best Handel mezzo in many years. The voice is richly coloured, delicately used but incisively dramatic. She brings Handel to open-hearted expressive life…’

Financial Times

SARAH CONNOLLY & LA SERENISSIMA Town Hall 7.30pm M42 £30 / £25 / £20 / £15 / £10

Supported by Diana Woolley

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MONday14JULY

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com Danjulo Ishizaka Cello Shai Wosner Piano JS Bach Solo cello Suite No. 2, BWV1008 Grieg Cello Sonata in A minor, Op.36 Schubert Sonata in A minor, D.821 ‘Arpeggione’

Danjulo Ishizaka

In the second of four concerts by Radio 3 New Generation Artists, we welcome two of the latest additions to their roster – German-Japanese cellist Danjulo Ishizaka and Israeli pianist Shai Wosner.

Shai Wosner

ISHIZAKA & WOSNER BBC RADIO 3 NEW GENERATION ARTISTs

Pittville Pump Room 11am M43 £18 / £14 / £11

Recorded for future broadcast

Supported by Clive Coates & Ann Murray

‘It is wonderful how Danjulo Ishizaka makes his Stradivarius cello sing…he loves dark timbres, rumbles with pleasure in the bass, enjoys lyrical passages to the full and plays with a clarity that lets us understand every note even at a whisper.’ Leipziger Volkszeitung

Oliver Boekhoorn Oboe Ivar Berix Clarinet Raaf Hekkema Saxophone Jelte Althuis Bass Clarinet Alban Wesly Bassoon Anon.13–16th centuries Spanish dances José Maria Sanchez-Verdú Libro de Glosas Boccherini Quintetto Fandango, Op. 50/2 Granados Two movements from Goyescas Ravel Alborada del Gracioso

CALEFAX La Spagna

Recorded for future broadcast

Pittville Pump Room 4.30pm M44 £18 / £14 / £11

CHELTENHAM BACH CHOIR Town Hall 7.30pm M46 £18 / £15 / £12 / £10

They play standing up, and mostly from memory. They get asked to play at both classical and jazz festivals around the world.

The Dutch group Calefax completely redefine our ideas of what a wind quintet is, and what it can do. This vibrant programme takes in six centuries of music, and is a celebration of Spain’s flamenco-imbued folk tradition.

Stephen Jackson Director Belinda Williams Mezzo-soprano Christopher Ruscoe Baritone Maria Marchant Piano Folk-inspired music from Britain and Hungary by Vaughan Williams, Bantock, Holst, Grainger, Kodály, Ligeti, Bartok and Stephen Jackson.

Explore Michael Tavinor - Dean of Hereford, Vicar of Tewkesbury Abbey 1990-2002 and a leading authority on hymnody – discusses Vaughan Williams’ relationship with the 1906 English Hymnal, and its connections with the folksong revival.

Town Hall Drawing Room M45 6.30pm Free Tickets must be booked in advance

Box Office 01242 227979

TUESDay15JULY

La Verne Williams Mezzo-soprano Daniel Bhattacharya Violin Alexis Ffrench Piano Tunde Jegede Cello Tunde Jegede Songs of the Eternal & Awakening Arvo Pärt Fratres Purcell Dido’s Lament Handel Messiah arias Beethoven Piano Trio in C minor, Op.1/3 In the second of his three-year residency in Cheltenham, and following a new work for himself and the Brodsky Quartet in 2007, Tunde Jegede returns with his Samhadi Ensemble.

A new work written specially for La Verne Williams and piano trio combine with Jegede’s recent arrangements of Messiah arias with kora accompaniment and an early Beethoven trio.

Tunde Jegede

Samhadi Ensemble Pittville Pump Room 11am M47 £18 / £14 / £11 Supported by The Steel Charitable Trust

Alasdair Malloy Presenter Festival Academy Players Alasdair Malloy, as well as being a fine percussionist and glass harmonica virtuoso, is Britain’s most captivating and imaginative presenter of children’s concerts. Here he teams up with the Festival Academy Players for a programme specially devised for hundreds of Gloucestershire schoolchildren.

Director Barrie Gavin introduces The Noble Savage & Bert, A Personal Memoir Barrie Gavin made The Noble Savage - his film portrait of Percy Grainger – for the South Bank Show in the 1980s. It is a musically intelligent, engrossing study that neither sensationalises Grainger’s eccentricities – such as his (in)famous interest in flagellation - nor shies away from the complex paradoxes of this maverick genius. And there are substantial contributions from a very young Simon Rattle and the CBSO, including The Warriors and Lincolnshire Posy.

Barrie Gavin’s Bert, A Personal Memoir, focuses on Bert Lloyd – journalist, Antarctic whaler, writer, singer and English folksong collector.

SCHOOLS’ CONCERT Young & Live Pittville Pump Room M48 2.30pm M49 4pm Free for schools groups Alasdair Malloy’s visit is supported by Elizabeth Jacobs

FILM DOUBLE BILL FOLK FISHING Pittville Campus M50 3pm Free Tickets must be booked in advance

Percy Grainger

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Tuesday15JULY

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com The Band of HM Royal Marines Commando Training Centre Lympstone Major J A Kelly Director Holst Second Suite Joe Duddell The Redwood Tree (World premiere) Grainger Lincolnshire Posy Vaughan Williams English Folksong Suite

ROYAL MARINES BAND Town Hall 7.30pm M51 £20 / £15 / £10 / £8

Alongside their folksong arrangements for more conventional vocal or orchestral lineups, Vaughan Williams, Holst and Grainger all created folk suites for the remarkable sonorities of military band. Inventive and affectionate tributes to a treasure trove of melodies, they have become central showpieces in the band repertoire around the world.

Dinner, performance and dance class with Tango Volcano Acclaimed British quintet Tango Volcano sold out two cabaret dinners at the Daffodil restaurant in the 2002 Festival. In the middle of a national tour with their new theatrical presentation Tango Tango, they make a welcome return to Cheltenham for an evening of music, dance and fine dining from Foster’s catering. The evening begins with a dance class and display from two expert tangoistas, proceeds with dinner in the adjacent Pittville marquee, and finishes in the Pump Room with a full stretch of live music and the chance to get into that Buenos Aires spirit on the Pump Room floor.

TANGO DINNER CABARET Pittville Pump Room & Pittville Bistro 6.30–10.30pm M52 £65 includes performance, dance class, three course dinner and wine

Pittville Bistro Evening Extravaganzas Bookings via the Box Office 01242 227979 Dining facilities are only available to ticketholders on these evenings.

Enjoy dinner, drinks and one of our select performances for a truly extravagant evening.

The combination of Fosters’ finest dinner catering, our marquee’s sweeping views of Pittville Park, and the superb musical entertainment in the adjacent Pittville Pump Room will add up to perfect summer evenings.

Fascinating Aida Wednesday 9 July (see page 16) Trabuco: Virtuoso Venezuela Saturday 12 July (see page 21) Tango Dinner Cabaret Tuesday 15 July (see above!)

Box Office 01242 227979

WEDNESDay16JULY

Pavel Haas Quartet Danjulo Ishizaka Cello Janácˇek String Quartet No.1, ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ Prokofiev String Quartet No.2, Op.92 Schubert String Quintet in C major, D.956 Since appearing in the 2007 Cheltenham Music Festival, the Pavel Haas Quartet has won the Chamber Music category in the 2007 Gramophone Awards. They are joined here by fellow BBC New Generation Artist Danjulo Ishizaka for a performance of one of the jewels of string chamber music, Schubert’s C Major Quintet.

On Monday 14 July, Danjulo Ishizaka performs Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata with fellow BBC New Generation Artist, pianist Shai Wosner.

Pavel Haas STRING QUARTET BBC RADIO 3 NEW GENERATION ARTISTs Pittville Pump Room 11am M53 £18 / £14 / £11 Recorded for future broadcast

Supported by Mary Mackenzie, Richard Walton & Friends

Winner of the 2008 Gloucestershire Young Musician award, pianist Alasdair Macaskill studied at Pate’s School in Cheltenham, before moving on last year to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Alasdair’s programme includes Haydn’s Sonata in E flat No. 62, three Schumann Romances, a selection of Debussy Images and Bartok’s Six Romanian Dances.

Gloucestershire Young Musician St Andrew’s Church, Montpellier 3pm M54 £6

Supported by The Steel Charitable Trust

Dante Quartet Noam Greenberg Piano Bridge Three Idylls Cheryl Frances-Hoad new work (World premiere) Vaughan Williams String Quartet No. 2 in A minor Elgar Piano Quintet The Dante Quartet won the Royal Philharmonic Society award for best chamber group in 2007, so it is particularly appropriate that they will give the first performance of 27 year-old composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s new work, commissioned by the RPS. Written in a burst of post-Great War creativity, which also generated the Cello Concerto and Violin Sonata, the Piano Quintet was described by Elgar as ‘strange music…ghostly stuff’. ‘It knocked me over at once’ wrote George Bernard Shaw after an early private performance. Vaughan Williams’ second quartet was composed mid-World War Two, at the same time as the 5th symphony.

DANTE QUARTET Pittville Pump Room 7.30pm M55 £25 / £20 / £15

Recorded for future broadcast

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thursday17JULY

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com Festival Academy Players Schubert Octet D.803 ‘Schubert has now long been at work on an octet, with the greatest enthusiasm,’ observed a friend in 1824. ‘If you go and see him during the day he says “Hello. How are you?” and carries on working, whereupon you leave’.

FESTIVAL ACADEMY 1 Pittville Pump Room 11am M56 £18 / £14 / £11

With thanks to all Festival Academy supporters.

See page 39 for full funding credits.

Schubert’s companion work to Beethoven’s Septet follows the same six movement plan, and adds a second violin to the line-up of clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin, viola, cello and double bass. With its brilliantly inventive and melodic writing, this late offshoot of the 18th century serenade is a perfect piece for the student and professional players of the Festival Academy to immerse themselves in together.

Rosy Hall Violin Alan MacLean Piano Programme to include: Smetana Aus der Heimat Saint-Saëns Havanaise De Falla Spanish Dance Suk Love Song

Keith Nutland Award St Andrew’s Church, Chedworth 3pm M57 £6

Rosy Hall is the winner of the 2007 Keith Nutland Award. Born in Bermuda, where she started to learn the violin aged 4, Rosy was educated at Cheltenham Ladies College.

Supported by The Steel Charitable Trust

Paul Lewis Piano Allan Clayton Tenor Schubert Sonata in G Major D.894 Schubert Die Schöne Müllerin Allan Clayton – ex-Worcester Cathedral chorister and St John’s College Cambridge choral scholar – is one of the most exciting singing talents of his generation.

SCHUBERT SONG 1 DIE SCHÖNE MÜLLERIN BBC RADIO 3 NEW GENERATION ARTIST

Pittville Pump Room 7.30pm M58 £25 / £20 / £15

Recorded for future broadcast

With a voice that combines lyric beauty, a wide palette of colours and thrilling strength, he is poised for a career of international reach on the opera stage and in concert.

It is particularly exciting to present him in partnership with Paul Lewis for the first of this Schubert song cycle sequence.

Box Office 01242 227979

friDay18JULY

Ravel Introduction and Allegro Poulenc Sonata Op.33 for horn, trumpet and trombone Ligeti Six Bagatelles for wind quintet Michael Zev Gordon new work for cello and piano Thomas Adès Court Studies from The Tempest Huw Watkins Dream Peter Maxwell Davies Economies of scale This programme gives a chance for Festival Academy players to shine in various combinations – including, in the Adès and Maxwell Davies works, the same lineup as for Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, performed later the same day.

Michael Zev Gordon’s new work for cello and piano, to be premiered by Robin Michael and Huw Watkins, has been commissioned by Elizabeth Jacobs.

FESTIVAL ACADEMY 2 Pittville Pump Room 11am M59 £18 / £14 / £11

With thanks to all Festival Academy supporters.

See page 39 for full funding credits.

Amy Dickson Saxophone Martin Cousins Piano Milhaud Scaramouche Rachmaninov Vocalise Huw Watkins Fanfares Piazzolla Milonga del Angel spnm composer new work Vaughan Williams Six Studies in English Folksong Matthew Hindson In Search of Ecstasy Iturralde Pequena Czarda Since her Young Artist performance in the 2006 Festival, Australian saxophonist Amy Dickson has further consolidated her position as one of the most compelling instrumentalists of her generation. Sony Classical has recognised her star potential by releasing an album this Spring, and her commitment to new music is reflected in this varied programme with works specially written for her by Huw Watkins and fellow Australian Matthew Hindson.

A warm Festival welcome to Bells In Motion, a progressive handbell ensemble based in Springfield, Illinois, who are on tour in the UK this summer. The ensemble combines seven octaves of handbells and chimes, string bass and drums to perform a wide range of music that includes jazz, big band, blues, classical and sacred numbers.

AMY DICKSON St Mary’s Church, Painswick 3pm M60 £9 Supported by The Steel Charitable Trust

Surround Sound Town Hall Pillar Room 6–9pm M61 Free Tickets must be booked in advance

The Countess of Munster Musical Trust

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friDay18JULY

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com Florian Boesch Bass-baritone Roger Vignoles Piano Schubert Settings of Der Wanderer and Aus Heliopolis Schubert Schwanengesang

Florian Boesch

Roger Vignoles

SCHUBERT SONG 2 SCHWANENGESANG

Florian Boesch is a young Viennese singer who sings Schubert lieder like the native that he is. The voice has an essential darkness and power, and Boesch always takes vocal and interpretative risks, pushing the boundaries of the songs to their emotional limits. The pairing with Cheltonian Roger Vignoles promises to be one of compelling personality.

Pittville Pump Room 7.30pm M62 £25 / £20 / £15

Supported by the Helena Oldacre Trust

Alexandra Wood Violin Catriona Scott Clarinet Robin Michael Cello Huw Watkins Piano Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time Four distinguished instrumentalists working with the students of the Festival Academy this week give a candlelit performance of Messiaen’s powerful quartet – composed while he was a POW at Görlitz in 1940, and given a remarkable premiere before the camp’s inmates on January 15 1941.

FESTIVAL ACADEMY 3 Quartet for the end of time Pittville Pump Room 10pm M63 £16 / £13 / £10

With thanks to all Festival Academy supporters.

See page 39 for full funding credits.

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Saturday19JULY

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

SCHUBERT’S PAINTERS Pittville Bistro 10am M64 £5

Christine Riding, curator of 18th and 19th century art at Tate Britain, gives an illustrated talk on early 19th century Germanic painting – Caspar David Friedrich, the Nazarene brotherhood and their contemporaries.

Mark Padmore Tenor Paul Lewis Piano Schubert Winterreise

Mark Padmore

Paul Lewis

Two favourite performers with Cheltenham Festival audiences – and artists who settle ever more excitingly into their artistic maturity – come together for Winterreise, Schubert’s powerfully bleak settings of Wilhelm Müller.

SCHUBERT SONG 3 WINTERREISE Pittville Pump Room 11am M65 £28 / £24 / £18 Supported by Diana Woolley

BULGARIAN SIngING WORKSHOP Town Hall 1–3pm M66 £5

FILM DOUBLE BILL BARTOK & CYMBALOM Pittville Campus 2pm M67 Free Tickets must be booked in advance

Singers of all ages and abilities are welcome to come along and participate in what promises to be a truly inspirational session, led by the London Bulgarian Choir’s director Dessislava Stefano.

Explore the unique vocal heritage of Bulgaria, and learn how to make that special Bulgarian sound.

The Miraculous Circumstance & Cymbalom Legacy Bert Lloyd, subject of Barrie Gavin’s film screened on Wednesday 15 July, wrote and presented The Miraculous Circumstance - made in 1981 to celebrate the Bartok centenary, and an absorbing journey tracing the composer’s collection of folk music a century ago in Hungary and Romania.

Mano Calom’s film Cymbalom Legacy is a hymn to this remarkable gypsy dulcimer, and focuses on the work of Roma-Hungarian virtuoso Miklos Lukacs.

The Miraculous Circumstance

LORD BERNERS Pittville Pump Room 6.15pm M68 £5

Supported by The Berners Trust

Peter Dickinson gives an illustrated talk as a preview of his latest book – Lord Berners: Composer, Writer, Painter – with advance copies exclusively available. Piano music, readings, and projections of unknown paintings create a unique portrait of this famous eccentric for his 125th anniversary.

Box Office 01242 227979 Novelist and music journalist Jessica Duchen reads from her latest book, Hungarian Dances, and discusses its musical roots with Ben Mandelson, world music guru and expert on middle European gypsy-folk music.

Saturday19JULY

HUNGARIAN DANCES Town Hall Drawing Room 6.30pm M69 £5

Festival Academy Players Anna Dennis Mezzo-soprano Alexandra Wood Violin Huw Watkins Piano Martyn Brabbins Conductor Lord Berners L’uomo dai Baffi Lennox Berkeley Three Dances for piano Berio Folk Songs Tansy Davies Elephant and Castle suite (World premiere) John Manduell 3M Skirmish (World premiere) Peter Maxwell Davies Seven In Nomines Michael Berkeley new work (World premiere) Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending The Festival Academy Players are reunited with Martyn Brabbins for a programme that brings together the Maxwell Davies and folk strands of the Festival, honours Lord Berners in his 125th anniversary year, and marks the 80th and 60th birthdays respectively of two previous Festival directors, John Manduell and Michael Berkeley.

John Manduell

Michael Berkeley

FESTIVAL ACADEMY 4 MANDUELL, BERKELEY & Friends Pittville Pump Room 7.30pm M70 £25 / £20 / £15

Supported by Lady Berkeley, Jack & Dora Black, Roger Lane Sir Peter & Lady Marychurch, The Berners Trust

Taraf de Haidouks, one of the most joyously distinctive groups to make it big in the world music boom of recent years, gave a sell-out performance in the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2003. This time, they wrap up the Music Festival with their customary verve, and with music from their latest album Maskarada, which re-gypsifies Romanian and Hungarian folk melodies made famous by Bartok and his contemporaries.

‘Their live act is extraordinary - a magical mix of quicksilver melodies, amazing violin and cimbalom solos, earthy songs of lost loves, and riotous traditional wedding songs…The band get several encores, then race to the foyer and start selling their CDs and charming the local females - of all ages. The warning should be not so much “lock up your daughters”, but aunts, mothers and grandmothers as well.’ The Daily Telegraph ‘They have this gift to make you feel alive’ Johnny Depp Support from The London Bulgarian Choir

TARAF DE HAIDOUKS Town Hall 8pm M71 £18 Standing

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Surround Sound

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

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Gloucestershire Youth Dance

GYJO

Gloucestershire Academy of Music

Imperial Gardens 11am–12noon 2–3pm Gloucestershire Dance, in association with World Jungle, takes you on an international journey exploring folk dance - from the Cotswolds to the Caribbean, and from the past to the present. Witness some of the county’s most talented youth companies give a current day twist to folk, and professional dancers interpreting an invigorating range of music.

This is the first event in a range of exciting dance performances and inclusive events across Gloucestershire, 5 – 20 July, as part of the national initiative Big Dance.

Imperial Gardens 11am–12noon Gloucestershire’s Youth Jazz Orchestra makes a welcome return to the Festival in 2008. GYJO, as they are known, is Gloucestershire’s leading youth jazz ensemble offering the county’s players the opportunity to rehearse and perform a varied and demanding library of music. Under the direction of Mike Sallis, the group will be performing a mixture of jazz standards, big band and Dixieland jazz.

Gamelan Community Players Imperial Gardens 12noon–3pm Jonathan Roberts Director With traditional Javanese dancer

Cleeve Samba Band Imperial Gardens 12noon–1pm The Cleeve Sambistas are a 40 piece samba band from Cleeve School, who have been playing together for two years in events ranging from local carnival processions to Venice Carnival. The band is made up of GCSE and A level students – all accomplished musicians who aren’t afraid of making some noise! The Sambistas play traditional Brazilian carnival rhythms fused with some original ideas of their own.

A ‘gamelan’ (translated as ‘hit with a hammer’) is an ensemble of percussion instruments on which the traditional music of Java and Bali is played at celebrations and rituals, or to accompany shadow puppet plays or dancers. The metallophones, xylophones and gongs are mounted on beautifully carved and painted wooden frames, and the music has a wonderfully distinctive, entrancing sound.

The Cheltenham Community Gamelan Players are joined by friends from the Oxford Gamelan Society. Each hour long session will provide the opportunity for you to have a go at playing in this rare and bewitching ensemble.

Imperial Gardens 3–4pm Gloucestershire Academy of Music is the first junior conservatoire in the area, and offers accessible opportunities for young people in the county. We are pleased to welcome back players from the senior and junior ensembles for wide-ranging performances in Imperial Gardens.

GAM is proud to be an affiliated institution of Trinity College of Music

Box Office 01242 227979

Surround Sound

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Vocal Antics

Bells in MotioNn

Imperial Gardens 2–3pm Led by Hilary Davies, this community choir ran taster sessions during the Music Festival in 2007. The choir is made up of singers of all abilities and is taught entirely by ear, which makes the wonderful joy and benefits of unaccompanied harmony singing available to anyone. They perform fantastic a cappella music from around the world; from the pulsating rhythms of Africa, to the unusual harmonies of the Balkans and the Republic of Georgia,from the haunting melodies of Russia to the exuberance of Black American Gospel.

Town Hall Pillar Room 6–9pm A warm Festival welcome to Bells In Motion, a progressive handbell ensemble based in Springfield, Illinois, who are on tour in the UK this summer. The ensemble combines seven octaves of handbells and chimes, string bass and drums to perform a wide range of music that includes jazz, big band, blues, classical and sacred numbers.

London Bulgarian Choir

Tewkesbury Town BAND Band Imperial Gardens 3–5pm Tewkesbury Town Band will be serenading us in Imperial Gardens, with an afternoon programme which will include music by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Town records show the existence of the band as early as 1838 when it led a procession through Tewkesbury to celebrate the coronation of Queen Victoria.

In the current day this lively group takes part in band contests and performances all over the country, and regularly tours abroad.

Singing workshop Town Hall 1–3pm Performance Imperial Gardens 4–5.30pm On the same day that Romanian gypsy kings Taraf de Haidouks come to town, we welcome the London Bulgarian Choir for a display of that distinctive, soulful Bulgarian choral sound.

Led by the inspirational Dessislava Stefano they explore the landscapes of the voice and the creative traditions of their country. Currently BBC Radio 3 Open Choir of the Year, this remarkable group has recorded for film soundtracks, sung in nightclubs, churches, festivals, embassies, village squares and a barge on the Thames!

In addition to their Imperial Gardens performance at 4pm, you can hear them as support for Taraf de Haidouks in the evening, and you can join Dessislava for a singing workshop and learn how to make that special Bulgarian sound.

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FAMILY & EDUCATION

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

Young Discovery at the Cheltenham Music Festival CEREAL SAMBA Sunday 6 July Town Hall 9.30–11am £5 Children (bring your parents along for free) This breakfast percussion workshop is more Crash Bang Wallop than Snap Crackle Pop. See page 11 for more details.

TIME TO SING Wednesday 9 July Town Hall 6.30pm £5 Parents Free for Children More than 200 primary school children from all over Gloucestershire come together for this showcase performance, which follows a series of singing workshops with professional vocal practitioner Liz Terry. Their journey through Britain’s folksong heritage features shanties, skipping songs, seasonal celebration and epic storytelling.

YOUNG & LIVE SCHOOLS’ CONCERT Tuesday 15 July Pittville Pump Room 2.30pm & 4pm Free for schools groups We are delighted to welcome Alasdair Malloy, Britain’s most engaging presenter of concerts for young people, to this year’s festival. He is joined by the Festival Academy players for two performances of a wonderfully entertaining concert especially devised for schools.

Contact the Box Office for details.

BULGARIAN SIngING WORKSHOP Saturday 19 July Town Hall 1–3pm £5 Singers of all ages and abilities are welcome to come along and participate in what promises to be a truly inspirational session, led by the London Bulgarian Choir’s director Dessislava Stefano. Explore the unique vocal heritage of Bulgaria, and learn how to make that special Bulgarian sound.

TUNDE JEGEDE WORKSHOPS As part of his residency this year, cellist and kora player Tunde Jegede works with young people in a number of local schools on creative musicianship and improvisation.

Our Education programme is supported by:

Berkhampstead School

THe Steel Charitable Trust

GOOD VIBRATIONS In collaboration with Good Vibrations, Cheltenham Festivals’ Javanese gamelan goes to HMP Gloucester for a week-long series of intensive workshops with prisoners. Good Vibrations’ work in prisons nationwide is justly praised for its success in helping prisoners develop key skills such as team-work, communication and concentration.

Members of the Cheltenham Gamelan Community Players will join participants for a concert in the prison chapel at the end of the week.

FESTIVAL ACADEMY AT NATIONAL STAR COLLEGE Alongside their rehearsals and performances, members of the Festival Academy join the talented conductor and educator Will Carslake for a day of workshops at the National Star College, whose students have physical disabilities and associated learning difficulties.

‘Our ongoing partnership with Cheltenham Music Festival and the Festival Academy, through these wonderful creative workshops, inspires and motivates our students.’

Paul Tarling, Co-ordinator, Performing Arts, National Star College

FREE FOR SCHOOLS Our amazing Free For Schools ticket offer is available across the entire Festival programme as part of our commitment to making the Cheltenham Music Festival accessible to all.

The massive range of the programme covers all areas of the music curriculum – symphonic, choral, chamber, world, folk, improvisation - and so provides huge educational benefit alongside the thrill of experiencing live music-making at the very highest level.

All Gloucestershire schools are eligible to apply for free tickets to concert/s of their choice.

These are subject to availability, and booking opens on 12 May. Please visit our website cheltenhamfestivals.com/education to download an application form; alternatively, contact: Nicola Tuxworth, Education Co-ordinator 01242 775822 nicola.tuxworth@cheltenhamfestivals.com.

We will be accepting booking applications from Monday 12 May – Friday 23 May. Requests for tickets will be considered after this date, but availability may be limited.

Sounds Good Classical, Folk/World & Jazz CDs & DVDs

A shop for enthusiasts, run by enthusiasts Please do come along and browse through our extensive stocks – we aim to cover not only Festival artists and repertoire (where possible) but would love to surprise you with a recording you weren’t expecting to find… We look forward to meeting old friends and making new ones have a wonderful Festival!

7 Henrietta Street sciencefestadvert2008 7/3/08 (opp. Brewery

11:27 am Centre)

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Tel: 01242 522878 www.VisitCheltenham.info

Email: info@cheltenham.gov.uk

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sss*chko*]_*qg ,400 4,- ,,,-

Box Office 01242 227979

Festival Academy Supporters Thank You Cheltenham Music Festival is deeply grateful to those who gave with exceptional generosity to this special cause.

Anonymous Mr & Mrs M.A. Baldwin John Beard Jack & Dora Black Angela Bowen Micheal Bower G. & R. Breeze Ria Brockbank Miss Enid Castle Christine Chambers Vicky & Alastair Channing Simon Collings Paul Collins Alan Cook Dr & Mrs G.W. Corney Robert Clark & Susan Costello D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Don & Martha Davey Martin & Caroline Davis Sandra & Peter Day Errol Edwards Margaret Eisler Andrew & Daphne Ellis Susan Fairclough Grace Fry Charitable Trust Elisabeth Gemmill Delia Graham-Clarke J.M.A. Gregson Professor & Mrs J.S. Harrison Jim Hawkins Mr E.G. Hunt Tim Jayne Roger Jones Miss J. Marsh Denise Martini Peter & June Marychurch Sir Michael & Lady McWilliam Mr & Mrs Eric Miller Jo Miller Palmer Newbould Robert Padgett Ken Plant Tony Ridlington Patricia Routledge, CBE Anne Seymour Richard Smith & Judith Ginatt Mr & Mrs R.J. Smith Penny Steer Miss C.M. Stewart Ann Tilley Dr D.P. Walton John & Gina Wilson Margaret Winterbourne Diana Woolley

39

Legacies ‘Making a will is important for all of us, however little we may have to leave.

By including the Cheltenham Festivals in your will, you could help to safeguard the tradition of artistic excellence in Cheltenham for the enjoyment of future generations.’

Dame Judi Dench CH President Cheltenham Festivals

Q What did Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Mozart do for Cheltenham?

A They left wonderful musical legacies that we can enjoy at the Cheltenham Music Festival.

Maybe this is your first experience of the Music Festival, or perhaps you first came many years ago, and now bring your children and grandchildren. Ever since World War II Cheltenham Music Festival has been delighting audiences with the enthralling legacies of music left to us by the great composers.

However, for the Festival to continue well into this century, we need your support. Can you join Mozart and Beethoven and leave a legacy, however small, to the Cheltenham Music Festival? Long term legacy support is vital to the future of this Festival, which is why we are asking you to consider giving in this special way. If you would like to know more about how your legacy could play a vital part in the Cheltenham Music Festival, please fill in the coupon below and send it to Rose Wood at 109 Bath Road, Cheltenham GL53 7LS

✁ In Confidence Please send me details of how to leave a legacy to Cheltenham Music Festival.

Name Address

Postode

40

PATRONS

Acknowledgements

Our patrons support all four festivals and are essential to maintaining Cheltenham Festivals as a world-class organisation.

Cheltenham Festivals

Cheltenham Music Festival

President Dame Judi Dench CH

Director Meurig Bowen

Vice-Presidents Eleanor Budge Charles Fisher Edward Gillespie Graham Lockwood Sir John Manduell CBE Sir Peter Marychurch KCMG Ion Trewin

Festival Organiser Nia Clark

For more information about becoming a patron, please contact Kathryn Honeywill 01242 264136 kathryn.honeywill@cheltenhamfestivals.com Life Patron Charles & Denise Fisher Graham & Eileen Lockwood Platinum Patron Peter & Anne Bond Mr & Mrs Michael Cronk Marianne Hinton Howard & Jay Milton Gold Patron Erica Austin Jack & Dora Black Eleanor Budge Clive Coates & Ann Murray Michael & Felicia Crystal Wallace & Morag Dobbin Lord & Lady Hoffmann Elizabeth Jacobs Jeremy & Anne Lodwick Penelope Lomax Sir Peter & Lady Marychurch Sir Michael & Lady McWilliam The Helena Oldacre Trust Esther & Peter Smedvig Nick & Kai Spencer Meredithe Stuart-Smith Janet Wedge Steve & Eugenia Winwood Peter & Alison Yiangou Festival Patron Mark & Maria Bentley Stephen & Victoria Bond Jonathan & Daphne Carr Robert Cawthorne & Catherine White Bombie Clark Christopher Dreyfus Viscount Esher James Fleming Kate Fleming Huw & Nicki Gwynn-Jones Stephen Hodge Anthony Hoffman & Dr Christine Facer Hoffman Richard & Peta Hoyle Simon & Emma Keswick Mark McKergow & Jenny Clarke Professor Angela Newing Andrew & Sheila North Robert Padgett Jonathon Porritt Sue Ratcliffe & Callum Wardle Patricia Routledge CBE Lavinia Sidgwick Jonathan & Gail Taylor Professor Lord Winston Anne Wood Corporate Patron HSBC Willans

Chair, Board of Directors Sir Michael McWilliam Chief Executive Donna Renney Director of External Relations Cathrine Brabbin HR & Office Manager Helena Bibby Finance Manager Keith Woodman Executive Assistant Carol Malcolmson Development Office Sarah Rawlings Kathryn Honeywill Claire Coleman Legacy Officer Rose Wood Press & Marketing Ian George Amy Hulyer Laura Parker Pete Riley Rory Tufano Emilia Zaperta Education Philippa Claridge Nicola Tuxworth Box Office Manager Sue Davis Brand & Festival Design Tijuana 0117 971 6962 Brand Consultant Howard Milton Company Secretary Margaret Austen Honorary Treasurer Dr David Wood Auditors Hazelwoods Registered Office 28 Imperial Square Cheltenham GL50 1RH Registered No. 456573 Charity No. 251765 VAT Registration No. 274184644 Main Switchboard Number 01242 774400

Development Manager Nicola Lawson Festival Assistant Robin Purser PR Consultant Simon Millward Albion Media 020 7629 3252 Music Festival Advisory Group Christopher Cook (Chair) Brian Carvell Jim Harrison Christopher Henfrey Kate Hicks-Beech Ben Nicholas Sarah Priday Diggory Seacome Paul Smith The 64th Cheltenham Music Festival is presented by Cheltenham Festivals, a company limited by guarantee.

With many thanks to all the staff at CBC, those at each venue and the festival volunteers, all of whom help make the Festival happen.

Photo Credits Andy Bradshaw, Anton Dressler, Arena Pal and Pete Jones, Boersma, Chris Christodoulou, Christian Steiner, Deen van Meer, Derek Maxwell, Geraint Lewis, Graham Oliver, Greg Barrett, Harmonia Mundi & Eric Manas, Jim Four, Johannes Ifkovits, John Batten, John Clark, Kaupo Kikkas, Linda Graedel, Marco Borggreve, Marek Vogel, Mark Crapper, Masataka Ishida, Mats Baecker - DG, Matthew Ford, Maurice Foxall, Michael Robert Williams, Nina Large, Pascal Gerard, Penelope Walbourn, Peter Warren, Peter Whyte, Ricardo Alcaide, Richard Kalina, Richard Stott, Sasha Gusov, Stephan Von der Deken, Sunara Begum, Sussie Ahlburg Photography, Tarvo Hanno Varres, Thomas Eberl, Tina Foster, Versluis, Werner Schuering, Youri Lenquette, Yvonne Robinson, Gary Houlder Cheltenham Music Festival is a member of The British Arts Festivals Association www.artsfestival.co.uk Association of British Orchestras Association of British Concert Promoters International Festivals & Events

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Open from 10am each day and on select evenings.

Pittville Bistro

Gather together friends and family for a private lunch: ÂŁ18.50 per person for a mouthwatering buffet in a lovely setting.

Pre-booked and bespoke hospitality

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To ensure that you and your guests enjoy Cheltenham Music Festival to the full, Fosters provide a full, bespoke hospitality service.

Fully licensed bar Credit card facilities available

Corporate clients to entertain, a private evening, lunch with special friends or a family celebration Fosters will provide a menu to suit your occasion.

For bookings and availability, call 0800 1075588

To discuss your personal requirements, phone 01242 264136.

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The Pittville Bistro provides a delightful environment in which to enjoy lunch or dinner.

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M35 ManchesterCCamerata M42 Sarah Connolly & La Serenissima

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Box Office 01242 227979

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At a glance

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

Event

Date

Time

M1

Fri 4 July

7.30pm

-

11am

M2 -

Sat 5 July

Event

Venue

BBC Philharmonic 1

Town Hall

SURROUND SOUND Gloucestershire Youth Dance

Imperial Gardens

12noon Trio Medieval

All Saints Church

12noon Cleeve Samba Band

Imperial Gardens

2pm

SURROUND SOUND Gloucestershire Youth Dance

Imperial Gardens

3pm

Rolf Lisevand Ensemble

Pittville Pump Room

M4

5pm

FILM The Full Monteverdi

Pittville Campus, University of Glos

M5

6.15pm

EXPLORE Meurig Bowen & Christopher Cook

Town Hall Drawing Room

M6

7pm

BBC Philharmonic 2

Town Hall

M7

9.30am

Cereal Samba

Town Hall

M8

11am

The Dowland Project

Pittville Pump Room

-

11am

SURROUND SOUND Glos Youth Jazz Orchestra

Imperial Gardens

-

12pm

SURROUND SOUND Gamelan Community Players

Imperial Gardens Imperial Gardens

M3

Sun 6 July

3pm

SURROUND SOUND Gloucestershire Academy of Music

M9

3pm

A Shropshire Lad & Songs of Travel

Pittville Pump Room

M10

6pm

EXPLORE Meurig Bowen on Grainger

Town Hall Drawing Room

M11

7pm

Carmina Burana

Town Hall

M12

11am

Ingrid Fliter

Pittville Pump Room

M13

3pm

Estonian Television Girls Choir

Pittville Pump Room

6.00pm

EXPLORE Gamelan Community Players

Tewkesbury Abbey

7.30pm

From Spem to Et Exspecto

Tewkesbury Abbey

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Mon 7 July

M14

Gringolts & Madžar

Pittville Pump Room

4.30pm

Wells A Cappella

All Saints Church

M17

7.30pm

On Wenlock Edge / Schubert Ensemble / Gilchrist

Pittville Pump Room

M18

11.00am Elias String Quartet

M15 M16

11am Tues 8 July

3pm

Barbirolli String Quartet

St Peter’s Church, Winchombe

M20

6pm

The Maxness of King George / Discovering Music

Pittville Pump Room

Wed 9 July

Time to Sing

Town Hall

M22

7pm

Cabaret Dinner / Fascinating Aida

Pittville Bistro

M23

9pm

Fascinating Aida

Pittville Pump Room

M24

11am

Marc-André Hamelin

Pittville Pump Room

M25

3pm

Thomas Carroll

St Swithin’s Church, Quenington

7pm

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir 1

Tewkesbury Abbey

9.30pm

SPNM’s Folk From Here / Tickell / Bhamra

Pittville Pump Room

M26

Thurs 10 July

M27

10.30am EXPLORE Veljo Tormis in conversation

M28 M29

6.30pm

Fri 11 July

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir 2

Pittville Pump Room

3pm

Lulu Yang

Pittville Pump Room

Philharmonia Orchestra / Hickox

Tewkesbury Abbey

Kathryn Tickell Band

Town Hall

7.30pm

M31

8pm

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11am

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Box Office 01242 227979 Event

Date

Time

Event

10.30am EXPLORE Mark-Anthony Turnage in conversation

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Venue Pittville Pump Room

M32

11am

Craig Ogden

Pittville Pump Room

M33

2pm

FILM O Thou Transcendent

Pittville Campus, University of Glos

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2pm

SURROUND SOUND Festival Community Choir

Imperial Gardens

Sat 12 July

3pm

SURROUND SOUND Tewkesbury Town Band

Imperial Gardens

M34

3pm

Mackwoods Fine Tea & Opera

Pittville Bistro

M35

7.30pm

Strings Fantasia / Manchester Camerata

Town Hall

M36

6.30pm

Trabuco dinner

Pittville Bistro

M37

8pm

Virtuoso Venezuela / Trabuco

Pittville Pump Room

M38

10am

Maxwell Davies & Hellawell in conversation

Pittville Bistro

M39

11am

Primrose Piano Quartet

Pittville Pump Room

2pm

FILM Akenfield

Pittville Campus, University of Glos

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M40

Sun 13 July

M41

4.30pm

Gloucestershire Youth Orchestra

Pittville Pump Room

M42

7.30pm

Sarah Connolly / La Serenissima

Town Hall

M43

11am

Ishizaka & Wosner

Pittville Pump Room

M44

4.30pm

Calefax

Pittville Pump Room

6.30pm

EXPLORE Michael Tavinor on RVW

Town Hall Drawing Room

7.30pm

Cheltenham Bach Choir

Town Hall

Samhadi Ensemble

Pittville Pump Room

Schools Concert 1: Young & Live

Pittville Pump Room

M45

Mon 14 July

M46 M47

11am

M48

2.30pm

M50

3pm

FILMS The Noble Savage & Bert, A Personal Memoir

Pittville Campus, University of Glos

4pm

Tues 15 July

Schools Concert 2: Young & Live

Pittville Pump Room

M52

6.30pm

Tango Dinner Cabaret

Pittville Bistro / Pump Room

M51

7.30pm

The Band of HM Royal Marines

Town Hall

11am

Pavel Haas Quartet / Ishizaka

Pittville Pump Room

3pm

Alasdair Macaskill

St Andrew’s Church, Montpellier

Dante Quartet

Pittville Pump Room

11am

Festival Academy 1

Pittville Pump Room

3pm

Rosy Hall

St Andrew’s Church, Chedworth

Die Schöne Müllerin / Clayton / Lewis

Pittville Pump Room

M49

M53 M54

Wed 16 July

M55

7.30pm

M56 M57

Thurs 17 July

M58

7.30pm

M59

11am

Festival Academy 2

Pittville Pump Room

M60

3pm

Amy Dickson

St Mary’s Church, Painswick

6.00pm

SURROUND SOUND Bells in Motion

Town Hall, Pillar Room

M62

7.30pm

Schwanengesang / Boesch / Vignoles

Pittville Pump Room

M63

10pm

Festival Academy 3 Quartet for the End of Time

Pittville Pump Room

M64

10am

Schubert’s Painters

Pittville Bistro

M65

11am

Winterreise / Padmore / Lewis

Pittville Pump Room

M66

1pm

WORKSHOP London Bulgarian Choir

Town Hall

M67

2pm

FILMS Cymbalom Legacy & The Miraculous Circumstance

Pittville Campus, University of Glos

M61

Fri 18 July

Sat 19 July

4.30pm

SURROUND SOUND London Bulgarian Choir

Imperial Gardens

M68

6.15pm

Peter Dickinson on Lord Berners

Pittville Pump Room

M69

6.30pm

Hungarian Dances - Jessica Duchen in conversation

Town Hall, Drawing Room

M70

7.30pm

Festival Academy 4

Pittville Pump Room

M71

8.00pm

Taraf de Haidouks

Town Hall

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BOOKING FORM Event No

Area (1st choice)

Area (2nd choice)

No of tickets

Festival Society Membership

Concession code

No of members

Price

Total

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

Membership code

I/We would like to join the Festival Society (Please sign the Gift Aid declaration)

£

Programme Book

No of copies

Total

Order your Programme Book in advance at £8 per copy Concession codes FS Festival Society U25 5 x 5 x 25 TH4 Free ticket for Town Hall events ECM ECM weekend pass TT Ten Together U Under 25s D Disabled

Total

£

Subtotal £

SUPPORT YOUR MUSIC FESTIVAL I would like to contribute to the Music Festival’s Education Programme

£2

£

Add £1 postage or enclose an SAE Total £ Surname

Please return to Cheltenham Music Festival Box Office, Town Hall Imperial Square Cheltenham GL50 1QA

Fax 01242 573902

KEEP IN TOUCH

Initials

Title

Address (registered cardholder)

Postcode

Tel Day

Tel Eve

I would like to receive a brochure for: Email

HSBC Cheltenham Jazz Festival

Cheltenham Science Festival

I enclose a cheque for a sum not exceeding £

The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival

Cheques made payable to Cheltenham Borough Council

Please provide us with your name, address and email address in order to facilitate your request.

I prefer to receive correspondence via email

Or please debit my card Visa

For further details on our Privacy Policy please visit cheltenhamfestivals.com

Solo

Maestro

Card no.

Expiry date

I do not wish to receive further information about Cheltenham Festivals. (You will still receive communications confirming and servicing any bookings you make with us.

If you are a Member, Patron or Sponsor, we will continue to keep you informed about your associated benefits and entitlements.)

Mastercard

/

Valid from

/

Issue no (Maestro only) Cardholder’s signature I/we wish the Festival Society to treat all subscriptions and donations I/we make from the

date of this declaration as Gift Aid payments until I/we notify you otherwise.

Signature

Date

BOOKING INFOrmation Priority booking Festival Society members 10am Monday 7 April 2008 General booking 10am Monday 21 April 2008 Remember early bookers get the best seats.

Box Office 01242 227979 Mon–Fri 10am–8pm. Sat 9.30am–5.30pm.

Online cheltenhamfestivals.com No concessions are available on-line.

Email boxoffice@cheltenham.gov.uk Fax 01242 573902 Using the booking form, include £1 to cover postage.

In person/by post Festival Box Office Town Hall Imperial Square Cheltenham GL50 1QA Mon–Sat 9.30am–5.30pm Opening hours during festival As above, or 15 mins after the start of the last Town Hall event.

By post Please use the booking form opposite, including an SAE (minimum DL) or £1 to cover postage.

All faxes, emails and booking forms should reach us at least 48 hours prior to the event you wish to book.

TICKET OFFERS 5 x 5 = 25 We’ve picked out five concerts that anyone under 25 can buy for £5 each. They’re concerts that we’re sure will make a big impression – if you give it a go.

M3 Rolf Lislevand Ensemble, M14 Tallis and Messiaen M26 Estonians in the Abbey, M35 Manchester Camerata M63 Quartet for the End of Time Please note that this offer only applies to the events listed above.

Town Hall Concerts Book 4 tickets for separate Town Hall events and get the cheapest ticket free (excludes Carmina Burana, Sunday 6 July).

ECM weekend pass Buy a ticket for all 3 Early Music events £50 / £42 / £36 (up to 10% off per concert).

M2 Trio Medieval, M3 Rolf Lislevand Ensemble & M8 The Dowland Project Please note no ticket offer can be used in conjunction with another and the following concessions do not apply: Festival Society, Under 25s, Ten Together.

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com Ticket Prices Ticket prices are shown next to each event with a concessionary rate in brackets. Please be prepared to show proof of eligibility for concessions at the Box Office and upon admission to events.

Reservations & Refunds Reserved tickets must be paid for within 3 working days or no later than 30mins before the start of an event, whichever is sooner. The Festival cannot refund money or exchange tickets, except in the case of a cancelled event.

Credit/Debit Cards Visa, Mastercard, Solo and Maestro accepted. Please provide card number, issue number, expiry date, name and address of the cardholder.

Cheques Make payable to Cheltenham Borough Council.

Concessions Concessions apply to all Festival events, (excluding M22, M36 & M52) subject to availability.

Proof of eligibility will be required.

Only one concession may apply per ticket.

Festival Society 10% discount off all tickets booked during priority booking period only – one ticket per concert per member. Please note that the Festival Society discount cannot be used in conjunction with any of the ticket offers, Ten Together or Under 25s concessions.

Ten Together Buy 10 tickets for one event and get the tenth for free (10% discount) Under 25s 50% discount for under 25s (does not apply to Events M22, M36 & M52 and Education events) Disabled Access Support workers and/or personal assistants to disabled patrons are admitted free, but please let Box Office know when you book. Provision is made at the Town Hall for wheelchair access (including toilets) and admitting guide dogs. If your hearing is impaired we will try to seat you in an appropriate location; an induction loop is in operation in most venues. Please discuss your requirements with Box Office when you make your booking.

Let Us Know We take pride in developing a quality programme and are always keen to hear your ideas about how we can improve the festival.

Contact If you have any specific comments about any aspect of the Festival, please write to: Nia Clark Cheltenham Music Festival Organiser 109 Bath Road, Cheltenham GL53 7LS music@cheltenhamfestivals.com We undertake to respond to any correspondence within ten working days.

Please note The Festival reserves the right to change artists or programmes as necessary. The Festival reserves the right to refuse admission to any performance until a suitable break, or at the first interval.

If you require a copy of this brochure in large print format, please call 01242 775897.

MAPS

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

CHELTENHAM

GLOUCESTERSHIRE 2

5 4

A435

M50

Hig h St reet

A

TEWKESBURY

M5

hR oad

A40

e

1

A435

Oriel Road

3

eria

l Sq.

E

D

Imperial Gardens

Imp

CHELTENHAM

A40

GLOUCESTER

Bat

al Lan

A46

Montpellier Terrace

A38

Sandfo

d TETBURY

Suffolk Road

Thirlestaine Road

Park Place

Venues 1 Town Hall & Info Point 2 Pittville Pump Room & Pittville Bistro 3 Imperial Gardens 4 All Saints’ Church, Pittville 5 University of Gloucestershire, Pittville Campus 6 St Andrew’s Church, Montpellier ark The P

Festival maps sponsored by

thedaffodil.co.uk

A429

STROUD M5

rd Roa

dover Road

A40

A417

CIRENCESTER Montpellier Gardens

STOW-ON THE-WOLD

B

A38

College Road

Mon tpel lier W alk

6

Imperi

St re et

Bath Road

Mont pellie r St

Prom enad e Rege nt St reet

Hi gh

Venues A Tewkesbury Abbey GL20 5RZ B Winchcombe GL54 5JS C Quenington GL7 5BN D Painswick GL6 6QA E Chedworth GL54 4AA

QUENINGTON A417

C