HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival brochure 2009

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3 – 18 July Box Office 0844 576 7979 cheltenhamfestivals.com

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Media Partners

Thank You to our Sponsors and Supporters Title Sponsor

Principal Sponsors

Working in Partnership

Media Partners

Associate Sponsors

Berkhampstead School

Individual Supporters Eleanor Budge Beryl Calver-Jones Michael & Angela Cronk Clive Coates & Ann Murray John Eaden Rosemary Harvey

Elizabeth Jacobs Graham & Eileen Lockwood Sir Peter & Lady Marychurch Sir Michael McWilliam Mary Mackenzie, Richard Walton & friends

Gerry Mattock Neil & Ann Parrack Patricia Routledge CBE Anne & Lloyd Surgenor Diana Woolley

Associate Supporters Glide Media Marketing

Trusts and Foundations Alan Cadbury Trust Quenington Sculpture Trust Garfield Weston Britten Pears Foundation George Budge Trust Holst Foundation Helena Oldacre Trust The Oldham Foundation Delius Trust

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Welcome

WELCOME It is customary in the introductions of Festival brochures like this one to exclaim that ‘there’s something for everyone’.

Well, there isn’t! No single music festival could ever claim that, because ‘everyone’ is a lot of people and a lot of different musical tastes.

Having said that, I will boldly claim that the 2009 HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival is an incredibly diverse cultural offering, one of the most vibrant and welcoming you could come across anywhere. If you put together the Shower Scene from Psycho, Robert Winston on composers’ mental health, Zadok the Priest with 16 baroque trumpets, the scabrous wit of Kit and the Widow, a fully-staged production of Mozart’s first opera, a major exhibition of comic-artist Gerard Hoffnung 50 years after his death, jazz-infused klezmer from Swiss quintet Kol Simcha, poet Wendy Cope’s new collaboration with composer Roxanna Panufnik and Michael Morpurgo with his Mozart Question, you have a very rich offering indeed.

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In 2009 we celebrate our 65 year past, through a fresh look at some of Cheltenham’s illustrious premieres. We celebrate the inspirational brilliance of young performers - from a role-model star like Nicola Benedetti to performances by our Festival Academy and five youth orchestras, no less.

We celebrate 250 years of the string quartet – in honour of Haydn – and music by composers with Jewish heritage – in honour of Mendelssohn.

The Overview on the following pages tells you more about how this richly layered programmed binds together, and includes details of our enhanced strand of events for children and families.

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In Cheltenham this July, it’s (almost) all here for the taking...

Meurig Bowen Festival Director 3 – 18 July Box Office 0844 576 7979 cheltenhamfestivals.com

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PS In case you’re wondering, we’re giving new life to 20 violins, violas and cellos that have lost their will to live as musical instruments. A range of artists are doing wonderful, surprising and lovely things to them, and creating our Painted Quartets exhibition at the Summerfield Gallery (Pittville Campus), the Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum and elsewhere around town.

Cello by PJ Crook Viola by Anthony Frost Violin by Jackie Morris Cello by Lincoln Seligman

3

Overview

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THE PERFECT FOURSOME

PREMIERES PAST AND PRESENT

Joseph Haydn - who died 200 years ago at the grand old age of 77 - wasn’t the first composer to put two violins, a viola and a cello together for intimate musical conversation. But he can claim the honours for having formalised the string quartet as a four-movement genre all of its own, capable of immense structural and expressive potential. Having written more quartets than any other composer - nearly 70! - it’s no surprise that he’s been dubbed the ‘father of the string quartet’.

Cheltenham audiences have heard a few premieres down the years - well over 200 in fact, since the first, Britten’s Four Sea Interludes in 1945. This year’s programme picks out a few of them for old time’s sake, and delivers quite a few 2009 premieres too.

The Back Catalogue...

Britten Four Sea Interludes (1945) M70 Hoddinott Clarinet Concerto No 1 (1954) M37 Nicholas Maw Life Studies (1974) M37 Richard Rodney Bennett Duo Concertante (1986) M32 Thomas Adès Powder Her Face (1995)* M70 Judith Weir Piano Quartet (2000) M32

HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival celebrates this huge contribution to western culture with World Quartets - a series of concerts by string quartets from around the globe. Alongside works by Haydn himself and his most illustrious pupil Beethoven, other contributions - country by country - will show just how far Haydn’s perfect foursome has travelled since:

* Adès’ orchestral reworking of material from the chamber opera

...and New Releases Harrison Birtwistle Bogenstrich (UK) M11 Mendelssohn Variations (UK) M34 Michael Zev Gordon Pebble in the Pond (world) M35 Huw Watkins (world) M35 Sally Beamish The Sins (world) M35 Tunde Jegede New work (world) M37 Alexander Goehr Manere (UK) M43 Philip Grange Cloud Atlas (world) M44 Shiva Feshareki insistent distortions (world) M44 Matthias Pintscher Study IV (UK) M53 Michael Zev Gordon Mandelstam settings (world) M54 Sasha Siem from the white dictionary (world) M54

The Quartets Endellion (UK) Haydn, Beethoven, Panufnik M4 Smith (UK) Crumb, Glass, Reich M9 Borodin (Russia) Haydn, Beethoven, Shostakovich M20 Meta4 (Finland) Beethoven, Schumann M31 Royal (Poland) Mozart, Mendelssohn, Szymanowski M46 Diotima (France) Beethoven, Ravel, Pintscher M53 Australian Haydn, Mendelssohn, Sculthorpe M61 Barbirolli (UK) and Australian Beethoven, Britten, Mendelssohn M66

There’s also other ‘new’ music - between 3 months and 40 years old - by David Briggs, George Crumb, Philip Glass, Orlando Gough, Roxanna Panufnik, Steve Reich, Dobrinka Tabakova, Peter Sculthorpe and John Woolrich.

See page 28 for more information on Painted Quartets, Cheltenham’s unique visual arts homage to Haydn

FROM KADDISH TO KLEZMER Hollywood Rhapsody John Wilson Orchestra M2

Mendelssohn’s own religious and cultural origins - he converted to Christianity at the age of seven - are the starting point for a major focus in this year’s Festival on music by composers with Jewish heritage. Look out in the following pages for a lot of music not just by Mendelssohn, but Alkan, Barber, Bernstein, Bloch, Copland, Finzi, Gershwin, Glass, Goehr, Herrmann, Korngold, Mahler, Reich, Schoenberg, Schnittke and Zev Gordon. Other contributions to this strand include:

Klezmer double bill Fiddler on the Hoof / Kol Simcha M28-30 Henry VIII’s emigré composers from Fretwork M41 Sing East Sing West schools performance M48 Norman Lebrecht on Mendelssohn and Mahler M55 Alexander Waugh on Musical Vienna M59 Hoffnung exhibition at the Summerfield Gallery (p28) 4

Overview

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SOMETHING ELSE

FOR THE FAMILY

This isn’t just a festival of classical concerts lining up, one after another. Though these concerts are pretty special in themselves.

We passionately believe that great music can be part of everyone’s lives, whatever their age. Here are some events in this year’s programme that will have huge appeal to children, their parents and grandparents:

As the name suggests, the Something Else element of the programme is all the rest - a fascinating mix of films, talks, children’s events and performances that could never put up their hands and say ‘I’m Classical’. Here’s a few that are, quite simply, Something Else:

Hollywood Rhapsody M2 Meet The Instruments M5 Michael Morpurgo’s The Mozart Question M38 Sing East Sing West M48

Robert Winston and Stephen Johnson discuss composers’ mental health M13

On Saturday 4 July, we are collaborating with the Cheltenham Strategic Partnership on a huge community event in Pittville Park. Please see page 30 for further information on Fiesta in the Park.

Classically-minded jazz from the David Rees-Williams Trio M24 Swiss klezmer band Kol Simcha, plus BBC documentary Fiddler on the Hoof M28-30 A talk on Stradivarius and his Strads M33 Michael Morpurgo’s The Mozart Question M38 1942 feature film The Great Mr Handel M51 Musical cabaret from Kit & the Widow M65 Tea & Opera from Mackwoods Fine Tea M68 Martin Coath and Kai-Thomas Roth on The Science of String Instruments M69 Why not try one of our concert and dining packages?

For more information go to cheltenhamfestivals.com

LIKE THIS?

Classical Favourites Here’s a selection of concerts that we are confident you will find - in their different ways - stirring, calming, inspiring…amazing.

M10 M27

Hollywood Rhapsody - a big orchestra, big tunes and a big heart M2 A Handel Celebration featuring Harry Enfield M8 Nicola Benedetti plays Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto M23 Beethoven, Bach and Schumann from Ingrid Fliter and Meta4 M31 Steven Isserlis plays Mendelssohn and Schumann M34 Choral favourites from Gloucester Cathedral Choir M39 Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet with Emma Johnson M46 Angela Hewitt plays Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn M52 Mendelssohn’s Octet from an England-Australia quartet coupling M66 Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Sibelius’ 5th symphony from the Hallé M70

In the pages that follow, and in At A Glance on page 38, we’ve marked out which events are the closest matches to other events. This should help you travel further on the festival journey and enjoy some more of your favourite things.

HEAR THIS! We’ve also marked up the concerts that you can sample a bit of on our website. You’ll either be able to hear something that’s being played in that concert, or something from one of the featured musicians or both. It’s very easy - just go to cheltenhamfestivals.com/music 5

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Imperial square, Cheltenham

Cheltenham TOWN HALL

PITTVILLE PUmp room

PITTVILLE park & PUmp room

Tewkesbury abbey

Tewkesbury abbey

Gloucester cathedral 6

PUmp room interior

Friday 3 July

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Benjamin Zander: Experiencing the Art of Possibility

HOLLYWOOD RHAPSODY

M2 Cheltenham Town Hall 7.30pm (ends approximately 9.30pm)

M1 Pittville Pump Room 4pm (ends approximately 6pm)

£5 £12 £18 £24 £30

£45

John Wilson Orchestra John Wilson Conductor

An extraordinary opportunity to hear one of the world’s most inspirational speakers.

From Gone with the Wind to Schindler’s List – a treasure trove of sumptuous film music for all the family

World renowned conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Benjamin Zander is often called in to advise world leaders, most recently at Davos earlier this year On this special occasion he will address a Cheltenham audience, using the metaphor of the orchestra and a life-time of experience conducting, coaching and teaching musicians, to show us how to live life fully and get the best from those around us.

Featured films and music include: Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue overture Herrmann Vertigo Kaper Mutiny on the Bounty Korngold The Sea Hawk Raksin Laura Steiner Gone With The Wind Waxman Philadelphia Story John Williams Schindler’s List, Star Wars, Harry Potter

He takes the audience on a journey that offers a new perspective on leadership, ever more crucial in this economic environment. Through stories, music and concepts he causes a radical shift in perception.

The John Wilson Orchestra is no ordinary orchestra. It’s a thrillingly in-your-face, 70-strong big band and symphony orchestra rolled into one. It’s the authentic Hollywood studio sound, combining the full sonic sweep of lush strings, swinging saxes and blazing brass. It features the finest players in the land, all giving 110% as they bring to life music that hasn’t sounded so good since the original soundtrack recording session.

Come alone or bring your colleagues - this is not a speech, it is an experience!

‘His leadership view is unconventional, irreverent and bold.

Its impact is without boundaries. I have seen Ben Zander’s teaching transform entire teams...in ways that are nothing short of magical...He is a catalyst for Excellence.’

Roseanna DeMaria, First Vice President, Leadership & Performance, AT&T.

John Wilson’s specially-devised programme celebrates the very best music from seven decades of the silver screen – a feast of gorgeous tunes, big-screen emotion and orchestral climaxes that will pin you to the back of your Town Hall seat.

FESTIVAL EVENSONG

Cheltenham College Chapel 5.30pm (ends approximately 6.15pm) Free (no ticket required) M26

Cheltenham College Chapel Chamber Choir Alexander Ffinch Director Prior to heading off on a tour of the USA, this fine chamber choir marks the start of the 2009 Cheltenham Music Festival with a special evensong, featuring Harris’s Bring Us O Lord God, a Magnificat by Praetorius, Holst’s Nunc Dimittis and Peter Philips’ Ecce Vicit Leo.

Benjamin Zander

John Wilson

7

Saturday 4 July

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WORLD QUARTETS 1 ENDELLION STRING QUARTET WENDY COPE

SOMETHING ELSE MANTRA

M6 St Matthew’s Church, Cheltenham 4pm (ends approximately 5.15pm)

M4 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 12.50pm)

£15 unreserved

£14 £18 £22

The Orlando Consort Kuljit Bhamra Tabla, Indian harmonium Jonathan Meyer Sitar Shahid Khan Voice

Haydn String Quartet Op. 76 No 1 21’ Roxanna Panufnik The Audience (text: Wendy Cope) 25’ Beethoven String Quartet Op. 131 42’

Musical Conversations Across The Indian Ocean

The eight-concert World Quartets series in this Festival celebrates Haydn’s legacy as the ‘father of the string quartet’; quartets from around the world perform quartet music from around the world across two and a half centuries.

On arriving in Goa, 16th century Portuguese missionaries set out to win the hearts, minds and souls of the local Goan population through the power of music. The newly built churches of the ‘Pearl of the Orient’ were filled with singing and playing, as western and eastern voices and instruments rang out together - creating an extraordinary blend of exotic and exuberant sounds.

Celebrating their 30th birthday in 2009, the Endellion Quartet launches the series with performances of Haydn himself, one of the late quartets by his most illustrious student Beethoven, and a brand new collaboration between Roxanna Panufnik and poet Wendy Cope.

Her newly commissioned comic verse muses on the foibles of classical music concert audiences the world over - mis-timed applause, sweet wrappers, ssshh’ing neighbours and more...

This brand new project Mantra, a search for a lost sound-world, brings such an extraordinary cross-cultural encounter back to life in the 21st century.

M41

This concert celebrates the Golden Jubilee of the St Endellion Festival, from where the quartet took its name.

EXPLORE

SOMETHING ELSE HANDEL, HENDRIX & CORAM boy

Roxanna Panufnik and Wendy Cope in conversation with Christopher Cook M3 Oval Room, Pittville Pump Room 10.15am (ends 10.45am) Free Tickets should be booked in advance Supported by Sir Peter & Lady Marychurch

M7 Queen’s Hotel 5.45pm (ends 6.45pm) £5

Conversation and readings by authors; Jamila Gavin (Coram Boy), Neville Farmer & Alexander Ross (The Devil’s Interval)

M66

It so happens that two writers who have featured Handel as a central character in their work recently are virtually neighbours near Stroud - but until now they’ve never met. Jamila Gavin’s story Coram Boy has recently enjoyed huge success as a musical play at the National Theatre.

Alexander Ross’s 2002 play, co-written with Neville Farmer, investigates the quirk of fate that had Jimi Hendrix living next door to Handel behind London’s Oxford Street – but 200 years apart.

SOMETHING ELSE - FAMILY EVENT MEET THE INSTRUMENTS! M5 Pittville Pump Room 3pm (ends approximately 3.50pm)

£5 for children (bring your parents along for free) Ideal for children aged 6–10 Genevieve Helsby, author of My First Classical Music Book and Meet the Instruments of the Orchestra! published by Naxos Books, teams up with some musicians to present a fantastic children’s concert. With famous tunes to spot, games to play, and the chance to join in on percussion instruments, there’s fun for everyone.

Bring a silly hat and a piece of percussion! (Anything that makes a noise – even a saucepan lid and a wooden spoon... but don’t worry if you forget – you won’t be left empty-handed!)

Part Masekela of Fiesta in the Park – see page 30 Hugh

M38 Kuljit Bhamra

8

Saturday 4 July

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Orchestra of the age of enlightenment & HARRY ENFIELD IN A HANDEL CELEBRATION

WORLD QUARTETS 2 AN AMERICAN TRIPTYCH FOR 4 JULY M9 Pillar Room, Town Hall (bar available) 10pm (ends approximately 11.15pm)

In association with WellChild M8 Cheltenham Town Hall 7pm (ends approximately 9pm)

£15 unreserved

£5 £12 £18 £24 £30 £50

The Smith Quartet

(£50 ticket includes WellChild fundraiser champagne reception)

George Crumb Black Angels 24’ Philip Glass String Quartet No 5 22’ Steve Reich Different Trains 26’

Ruby Hughes Soprano Iestyn Davies Counter-tenor Neal Davies Bass David Blackadder Trumpet Oriel Singers St Cecilia Singers Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Ben Hoffnung Conductor with Harry Enfield as Handel

No other country’s composers in recent decades have been more enterprising than the USA’s in re-imagining the string quartet’s potential – and not just by going electric, as each of these three remarkable and distinctive pieces do. Black Angels inspired the formation of the Kronos Quartet, who subsequently premiered the other two works.

Divine Music for Trumpets and Voices including: Zadok the Priest The Water Music Music for the Royal Fireworks Dettingen Te Deum Arias and choruses from Messiah, Rinaldo, Joshua, Judas Maccabeus and Acis and Galatea

George Crumb – 80 this year – wrote his dark, dramatic work in 1970 as a Vietnam protest, and its inspired amalgamation of unusual string effects, bowed wineglasses, Schubert quotations and numerical symbolism makes for a strikingly satisfying whole. Reich’s iconic work fuses hypnotic string patterns with sampled voices, each recollecting wartime train journeys in both Nazi Germany and North America.

M19

250 years since his death in 1759, the full breadth of Handel’s genius is put on show in this celebratory anniversary programme. One of the world’s most admired period instrument orchestras, the OAE, comes to Cheltenham with a blazing, surround-sound corps of 16 trumpets, stunning soloists and a programme of favourite choruses, orchestral music and showstopping arias.

So, Handel as you’ve possibly never heard before. But Handel, too, as you’ve never seen before, in the form of Harry Enfield as 18th century London’s most illustrious European immigrant. From his German youth and Italian apprenticeship to the decades of triumph in England, Enfield applies his formidable acting skills to telling Handel’s story.

Supported by Diana Woolley

Iestyn Davies

Neal Davies

Ruby Hughes

Harry Enfield

Handel had a close association with Thomas Coram and his children’s home, the Foundling Hospital. So it is a pleasure for Cheltenham Music Festival to collaborate on this concert with Cheltenham-based WellChild - the national UK charity dedicated to supporting sick children and their families.

WellChild Children’s Nurses across the UK provide expert care for chronically sick children living at home, while the WellChild Helping Hands scheme organises hands-on projects to help families of seriously ill children.

For more information: wellchild.org.uk

M21 M39 9

Sunday 5 July

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BRENDEL/FELLNER/WILLIAMS

AN 1100th BIRTHDAY CONCERT

M11 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 12.50pm)

M12 Cheltenham Town Hall 2pm (ends approximately 4pm)

£14 £18 £22

£10 £5 under 18, unreserved

Adrian Brendel Cello Till Fellner Piano Roderick Williams Baritone

Wells Cathedral School Symphony Orchestra Kate Suthers Violin Christopher Adey Conductor

Bach Solo Cello suite No 1 in G major, BWV 1007 20’ Beethoven Piano Sonata No 5 in C minor, Op. 10/1 17’ Beethoven Lieder tba 15’ Harrison Birtwistle Bogenstrich (UK premiere) 20’

Copland Fanfare for the Common Man 4’ Korngold Violin Concerto 26’ Tchaikovsky Symphony No 5 46’

Acclaimed Austrian pianist Till Fellner, in the middle of a three-year worldwide Beethoven sonata cycle, brings one of the Op.10 set to Cheltenham alongside the UK premiere of Birtwistle’s five-part sequence for piano, cello and baritone. Co-commissioned with the Wattens Festival in the Italian Alps, where the world premiere takes place in May 2009, this major new work from Britain’s most internationally celebrated composer features settings of the early 20th century poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

We welcome the flagship orchestra of the specialist music school at Wells Cathedral, an institution celebrating its 1100th anniversary – no less - in 2009! Their programme includes Korngold’s luscious, highly-charged concerto, much of it a reworking of tunes from four Warner Brothers film scores, including The Prince and the Pauper starring Errol Flynn. Dedicated to Mahler’s widow Alma, the concerto was premiered by the pre-eminent mid-20th century virtuoso, Jascha Heifitz, in 1947.

EXPLORE

Supported by Lloyd & Anne Surgenor

Harrison Birtwistle in conversation with Christopher Cook M10 Oval Room, Pittville Pump Room 10.15am (ends 10.45am) Free Tickets should be booked in advance Supported by Neil & Ann Parrack

M56

M53

Adrian Brendel

Roderick Williams

10

Sunday 5 July

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SOMETHING ELSE ROBERT WINSTON & STEPHEN JOHNSON

BAMPTON CLASSICAL OPERA MOZART & GLUCK DOUBLE BILL

M13 Drawing Room, Town Hall 4.30pm (ends approximately 5.30pm)

M15 Pittville Pump Room 6.30pm (ends approximately 9.40pm, including 75 minute interval - why not bring your own picnic?)

£8 unreserved

£25 £30 £35 performance only

Great creators: genius or madness?

M14 Pittville Bistro/Pittville Pump Room 5.45pm arrival drinks & canapés 7.30pm 75 minute dinner interval

Is genius close to madness or are great creators essentially sane? Robert Winston discusses the mental health of various composers - including Schumann, Wolf, Tchaikovsky, Ravel and Mahler - with writer and broadcaster Stephen Johnson, who contributed to Professor Winston’s recent Radio 4 series on the same subject, Musical Analysis.

They will look at how, and why the brain is driven to create, and at what music can do for us, the listeners.

£70 performance (top price ticket), dinner and wine Cast includes Martene Grimson, Amanda Pitt, Serena Kay Lina Markeby, Tom Raskin and Edmund Connolly Bampton Classical Players on period instruments Murray Hipkin Conductor Jeremy Gray Director Gluck Le Cinesi 50’ Mozart Apollo and Hyacinth 55’ (Fully staged performances in English)

M69

Described as ‘a delightful, spirited evening’ in Opera magazine, we are pleased to present this entertaining double bill from Bampton Classical Opera, established in 1993 and dedicated to breathing new life into little-known works of the classical period.

Apollo and Hyacinth is Mozart’s first opera, composed when he was only 12 and telling of love, jealousy, revenge and metamorphosis amongst the gods. Gluck’s Le Cinesi, first seen in 1754, is a comedic look at how three young Chinese ladies, confined to quarters, amuse themselves.

‘There isn’t a company in England with as sharp a sense of fun as Bampton. Season after season they dig up rare gems, served up with canny wit, visual deftness and a musical spring that make them one of the high pleasures of an English summer.’ Opera Now

Robert Winston

Le Cinesi

Apollo and Hyacinth

11

Monday 6 July

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CHAMBER MENDELSSOHN 1 BBC RADIO 3 NEW GENERATION ARTISTS

CHOIR of TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE M17 Tewkesbury Abbey 7.30pm (ends approximately 9.30pm)

M16 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 12.45pm)

£8* £13 £16 £20

£10 £14 £18

Stephen Layton Conductor David Briggs Organ

Tai Murray Violin Andreas Brantelid Cello Ashley Wass Piano

Mendelssohn Richte mich, Gott 4’ Bach Jesu meine Freude 25’ Stanford Beati quorum via 4’ Finzi Lo, the full final sacrifice 12’ David Briggs Mass of Notre Dame 30’

Copland Vitebsk Trio 13’ Mendelssohn Piano Trio in D minor Op. 49 30’ Korngold Much Ado About Nothing suite 12’ Shostakovich Piano Trio No 2 24’

In the 800th anniversary year of Cambridge University, one of their most admired college choirs exchanges its magnificent 16th century chapel for the medieval splendour of Tewkesbury Abbey. Two years into his time as Director, top-rank choral conductor Stephen Layton is bringing his trademark delivery of fire and precision to the choir’s sound, and this varied programme will display their quality to the full.

BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artist scheme is 10 years old this year, and we welcome a number of the newest participants in the 2009 Festival. New York-based violinist Tai Murray and Danish cellist Andreas Brantelid are joined in a pair of concerts by previous NGA Ashley Wass for programmes revolving around works by Mendelssohn.

Korngold’s Much Ado...music was written for a Viennese production of the play in 1920, 14 years before he fled Nazi Europe for California. Copland connected with his RussianLithuanian Jewish heritage in the 1928 trio, his intention ‘to reflect the harshness and drama of Jewish life in White Russia’. And the full disclosure in 1944 of the horrors of the concentration camps prompted one of Shostakovich’s most striking works, with its distinctively fraught demeanour and concluding Jewish death dance.

They are joined by virtuoso organist David Briggs, Director of Music at Gloucester Cathedral from 1994 to 2002, for a performance of his French-inspired Notre Dame mass promising spectacular, often-improvised outbursts from the Abbey’s magnificent Milton organ.

Lie back and think of… * For £8, soak up the sounds and sights of this stunning building in an area at the back of the Abbey where seats are replaced by your own rugs, blankets or cushions.

M20 M26

M39

Tai Murray

Andreas Brantelid

12

Tuesday 7 July

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CHAMBER MENDELSSOHN 2 BBC RADIO 3 NEW GENERATION ARTISTS

SOMETHING ELSE - FILM STOCKHAUSEN & HELICOPTERS

M18 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 12.45pm)

M19 Pittville Campus 5pm (ends 6.20pm) £5 unreserved

£10 £14 £18 Tai Murray Violin Maxim Rysanov Viola Andreas Brantelid Cello Ashley Wass Piano

Helicopter String Quartet A film by Frank Scheffer, featuring the Arditti Quartet Prior to the no-frills, unapologetically mainstream programme from the Borodin Quartet, this is the tale of just how far a composer can take the string quartet medium. Inspired by a dream of flying musicians, Karlheinz Stockhausen created a work for four helicopters, four string players and a mixing desk. Frank Scheffer’s film documents the complex preparations for the 1995 Holland Festival premiere, and includes typically off-the-wall insights from Stockhausen himself. As Chicago’s Time Out wrote, this film is the ‘story of a laughably absurdist vision powerfully realised.’

Mendelssohn Songs without words (selection) 20’ Bruch Kol Nidre - Adagio on Hebrew melodies 12’ Dobrinka Tabakova Jazz Suite 10’ Mendelssohn Piano Quartet in F minor, Op. 2 25’ Russian viola master Maxim Rysanov joins his fellow BBC New Generation Artists for one of Mendelssohn’s spirited, life-affirming Piano Quartets. He and Ashley Wass also perform a new work by London-raised Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova, infused with the spirit of her jazz favourites Oscar Peterson, Jacques Loussier, Keith Jarrett and Art Tatum. The cello and piano pairing of Brantelid and Wass perform Max Bruch’s soulful Kol Nidre meditation, and Wass alone presents a selection of Mendelssohn’s exquisite piano miniatures.

M9

WORLD QUARTETS 3 BORODIN QUARTET

Supported by Graham & Eileen Lockwood

M20 Pittville Pump Room 7.30pm (ends approximately 9.20pm) M37

£18 £22 £26 Haydn Quartet Op. 33 No 3 ‘The Bird’ 19’ Shostakovich Quartet Op. 73 No 3 33’ Beethoven Quartet Op. 18 No 1 26’ The line-up may have shifted over the years – most recently with the departure of the original cellist Valentin Berlinsky after 62 years’ service – but this is a special opportunity to hear the world’s longest-established string quartet, one that performed at Stalin’s funeral in 1953 (and fitted in Prokofiev’s on the same day).

Aside from Bartók perhaps, no composer in the 20th century extended the expressive possibilities of the string quartet medium more thoroughly and brilliantly than the Borodin Quartet’s countryman and collaborator, Dmitri Shostakovich - whose third of 15 quartets combines here with a Haydn favourite, nicknamed ‘The Bird’, and Beethoven’s very first.

Ashley Wass

Borodin Quartet

13

Wednesday 8 July

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ensemble l’Aia’s musical offering

ORCHESTRA EUROPA & NICOLA BENEDETTI

M21 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 12.50pm)

M23 Cheltenham Town Hall 6pm (ends approximately 7.50pm)

£10 £14 £18

£5 £10 £15 £20 £25

Georgia Browne Flute Tuomo Suni Violin Nicholas Milne Viola da gamba Haru Kitamika Harpsichord

Scott Ellaway Conductor Nicola Benedetti Violin

Abel Works for viola da gamba; Trio Sonata 16’ Handel Trio Sonata in B minor Op. 2/1 11’ Handel Flute Sonata in E minor 10’ Bach Sonata in A major BWV 1015 15’ Bach A Musical Offering BWV 1079 22’

Mendelssohn Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream 12’ Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto 35’ Schubert Symphony No 9 in C major, ‘The Great’ 45’ Orchestra Europa is a brand new venture in 2009, bringing together the finest orchestral musicians from around Europe at a critical point in their careers between conservatoire studies and full-time work. Enterprising Welsh conductor Scott Ellaway, still in his twenties, has realised this ambitious project, and this Cheltenham performance with star violinist Nicola Benedetti is the culmination of Orchestra Europa’s first year of residencies and concerts.

Taking its name from the Italian name for The Hague, Ensemble L’Aia comprises some of the most distinguished recent graduates from the Dutch city’s Royal Music Conservatory - one of the world’s centres of period instrument performance and training.

Bach and Handel never met. But they did share the same English eye surgeon, whose operations on both composers were equally unsuccessful. And they did get offered the same job, at different times, as Buxtehude’s successor in Lübeck - on condition that they married his daughter. It was a prize job, but apparently the daughter was not so much of a catch, and neither took up the post...

Mendelssohn famously revived a number of baroque works by Handel and Bach, including the St Matthew Passion. But he also conducted the first performance of Schubert’s final symphony, the ‘Great C Major’, a decade after the composer’s death.

Recorded for future broadcast

M8 M45

M12 M70

SOMETHING ELSE DAVID REES-WILLIAMS TRIO

THE ROYAL HARPIST claire jones M22 St Swithin’s Church, Quenington 3pm (ends approximately 4.10pm)

Pittville Pump Room 9pm (ends approximately 10.20pm)

£10 unreserved

£15 M24 Cabaret seating, bar available

Bach (arr. Rayan-Forero) Partita No 1 BWV 825 Walter-Kune Eugene Onegin Fantasie Fibich (arr.Claire Jones) Poem Salzedo Ballade John Williams (arr. Jolly/Jones) Theme From Schindler’s List Mathias Santa Fe Suite De Falla (arr. Grandjany) Spanish Dance No 1

£27 M25 Includes pre-ordered cheese platter and wine For any fans of Jacques Loussier’s jazzy take on classical tunes, this is the concert for you. In fact, the Evening Standard has claimed that this piano-bass-drums trio ‘far outstrips anything achieved by Jacques Loussier or the Swingles. They are on another plane and deserve huge recognition’.

Dormant since the 1870s and the reign of Queen Victoria, Prince Charles revived the ancient post of Royal Harpist in 2000. Pembrokeshire-raised Claire Jones, a winner at the National Eisteddfod in 2006, is the current holder of this unusual but culturally important post – as an ambassador for the instrument, appearances take her from rural schools to Grand Slam dinners for the Welsh rugby team. Her varied programme ranges from William Mathias’ classic work for the instrument – in what would have been his 75th birthday year – to spirited, virtuoso showpieces.

Teas will be served afterwards in the Rectory (£2) Supported by Quenington Sculpture Trust

Nicola Benedetti

14

Thursday 9 July

Box Office 0844 576 7979

FESTIVAL ACADEMY 1

SOMETHING ELSE - FILm FIDDLER ON THE HOOF

M26 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 12.50pm)

M28 Pittville Campus 7pm (ends 7.55pm)

£10 £14 £18

£5 unreserved

Festival Academy Strings James Gilchrist Tenor Clare Muireann Murphy Storyteller Neil Thomson Conductor

With atmospheric performances, a real New York Jewish wedding, and pre-war archive footage, this documentary – made for the BBC in 1992 by Simon Broughton - gives a clear picture of where klezmer has come from and where it’s going. It includes performances by Kapelye, the Klezmatics, Don Byron, Giora Feidman and many more.

Herrmann Suite from Psycho 10’ Barber Adagio 8’ Finzi Dies Natalis 25’ Mahler Adagietto from Symphony No 5 10’ Delius Sonata for Strings 25’

M55 M59

This year’s Festival Academy project, a string orchestra, is at the heart of the Festival’s entire programme, performing works by anniversary composers Handel and Mendelssohn, by several composers of Jewish heritage, and a number of Cheltenham premieres past and present.

SOMETHING ELSE KLEZMER Band Kol Simcha Jewish folk music with a twist

This opening concert is a feast of vivid, emotionally intense string writing - from Herrmann’s brilliantly tense music for Hitchcock’s Psycho to the melancholic loveliness of Mahler’s Adagietto. James Gilchrist’s affinity with English song makes him the perfect tenor for Finzi’s lyrical masterpiece, and Eric Fenby’s arrangement for string orchestra of Delius’ 1916 string quartet gets a rare but welcome hearing.

M29 Pittville Bistro/Pittville Pump Room 7pm (ends approximately 10pm) performance and dinner - hearty bowl food, £35 bagels and local ale)

M30 Pittville Pump Room 8.30pm (ends approximately 10pm) £10 £14 £18 performance only

Intrigued how Clare Muireann Murphy, an Irish storyteller of unique communicative gifts, will weave her narrative spell in this vivid programme? Come and find out...

Klezmer music is soulful, vigorous and virtuosic. Meaning ‘instrument of song’ in Hebrew, it originates from the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, and its infectious rhythms and melodies have a certain exoticism that suggest something further east again. But klezmer travelled west, too, with Jewish migration to North America, and through the work of exceptional musicians like Benny Goodman, found its way into early jazz.

See page 31 for further Festival Academy information.

Supported by The Steel Charitable Trust In recognition of the Leonora Society

M2 M37

Swiss group Kol Simcha – Hebrew for the ‘voice of joy’ – is a remarkable quintet featuring clarinet, flute, piano, bass and drums. Dazzlingly virtuosic, sophisticated yet earthy, and with an original, jazz-inflected take on this Jewish folk music, their live performances are unforgettable.

THE ROYAL HARPIST

M27 St Eadburgha’s, Broadway 3pm (ends approximately 4.10pm)

‘The music cuts across all boundaries.

They sound jazzy, funky and fun’. Time Out

£10 unreserved This is a repeat of Claire Jones’ programme on Wednesday 8 July, this time in the exquisite medieval church of St Eadburgha, set a mile away from Broadway itself on the lane leading to Snowshill.

M24

Simon Jenkins, in England’s Thousand Best Churches, explains that Eadburgha was Alfred the Great’s granddaughter – ‘to whom sainthood came without too much hardship when, as a child, she was offered jewels or a Bible as a gift and she chose the latter.’

Kol Simcha

15

Friday 10 July

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

FESTIVAL ACADEMY 2

WORLD QUARTETS 4 META4 & Ingrid FLITER BBC RADIO 3 NEW GENERATION ARTISTS

M32 Holy Apostles Church, Charlton Kings (Cheltenham) 3pm (ends approximately 4.10pm)

M31 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 12.50pm)

£15

£14 £18 £22

Festival Academy Soloists including Catriona Scott Clarinet Alexandra Wood Violin Caroline Henbest Viola Robin Michael Cello Huw Watkins Piano

Beethoven Quartet Op. 130/133 Grosse Fuge 40’ Bach Italian Concerto BWV 971 13’ Schumann Piano Quintet in A minor 25’ Argentinian pianist Ingrid Fliter, who gave a memorable Cheltenham debut recital in 2008, performs the Schumann Quintet with the latest string quartet to join the New Generation Artist scheme, Meta4 from Finland. Formed in 2001, they won the Shostakovich competition in Moscow in 2004 and Vienna’s Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in 2007.

Prokofiev Overture on Hebrew Themes 9’ Richard Rodney Bennett Duo Concertante 10’ Judith Weir Piano Quartet 17’ Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht 25’ Schoenberg’s string sextet is one of the definitive closing statements of romanticism, a tone poem of huge structural and emotional range. Prior to this, we hear two chamber works premiered at Cheltenham: Judith Weir’s Piano Quartet, written for the Schubert Ensemble in 2000, and Richard Rodney Bennett’s showpiece for clarinet and piano, commissioned by the Royal Overseas League for a Cheltenham premiere in 1986.

Supported by Michael & Angela Cronk

M20

Supported by The Steel Charitable Trust

M35

SOMETHING ELSE THE GENIUS OF ANTONIO STRADIVARI M33 Pittville Pump Room 5.30pm (ends 6.30pm) £5

Meta4

unreserved

An illustrated talk by Toby Faber, author of Stradivarius: Five violins, one cello and a genius (Macmillan) Nearly 300 years after Antonio Stradivari’s death, his violins and cellos remain the most highly prized instruments in the world. Loved by great musicians and capable of fetching fabulous sums when sold, their tone and beauty are legendary. Every subsequent violin-maker has tried to match them. Not one has succeeded. How can that be?

Prior to the recital by Steven Isserlis - himself playing on one of these extraordinary instruments - Toby Faber explores this mystery in an illustrated talk that will follow Stradivari’s instruments from his workshop to the present day.

M69 Ingrid Fliter

16

Friday 10 July

Box Office 0844 576 7979

STEVEN ISSERLIS

FESTIVAL ACADEMY 3

£18 £22 £26

£15 unreserved

Steven Isserlis Cello Connie Shih Piano

Festival Academy Soloists Huw Watkins Piano Samuel West Reader Richard Baker Conductor

M34 Pittville Pump Room 7pm (ends approximately 9pm)

M35 Holy Apostles Church, Charlton Kings (Cheltenham) 9.30pm (ends approximately 10.30pm)

Schumann Fantasiestücke Op. 73 10’ Mendelssohn Variations (UK premiere) 15’ Schumann Stücke im Volkston Op. 102 18’ Schumann (arr Piatti) Märchenbilder, Op. 113 15’ Mendelssohn Sonata No 2 in D major, Op. 58 27’

Michael Zev Gordon A Pebble in the Pond (concert premiere) 25’ Huw Watkins New work for piano (premiere) 5’ Sally Beamish/Phi Hind The Sins (premiere) 30’

We welcome back to Cheltenham one of the world’s most celebrated cellists, Steven Isserlis, for a programme that focuses on two composers he has a special affinity with.

He includes the UK premiere of some variations for cello and piano that Mendelssohn composed in 1830. While the manuscript of the piano part exists in Berlin’s State Library, the cello part is missing. The Italian composer Gabrio Taglietti has been commissioned to reconstruct afresh this cello part, and the world premiere was given by Isserlis earlier this year in Italy.

Michael Zev Gordon collaborated with Eva Hoffmann on a work specially written for radio in 2003; uniquely evocative and expressive, this reflection on memory won a Prix d’Italia the following year. The performance here is the premiere of a concert version commissioned by HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival.

William Langland’s Piers Plowman, written towards the end of the 14th century and set in the nearby Malverns, is one of the earliest major poems in the English language.

From its rich narrative Phil Hind has translated and adapted to modern English Langland’s description of The Seven Sins, and this has been developed for narrator and ensemble by Sally Beamish.

“There is no composer to whom I feel closer than to Schumann. He has been a beloved friend since I was a child; I remain as fascinated today as I was then by his unique blend of poetry, ecstatic strength and confessional intimacy.”

Steven Isserlis, writing in the booklet notes for his recent Hyperion recording.

The Sins commissioned and supported by Beryl Calver-Jones and Gerry Mattock Supported by The Steel Charitable Trust

M11

Steven Isserlis

Samuel West

17

Saturday 11 July

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

FESTIVAL ACADEMY 4

SOMETHING ELSE - family event MICHAEL MORPURGO’S THE MOZART QUESTION

M37 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 1pm)

M38 Pittville Pump Room 3pm (ends approximately 4pm)

£10 £14 £18

£8

Festival Academy Strings Tunde Jegede Kora Catriona Scott Clarinet Alexandra Wood Violin Robin Michael Cello Neil Thomson Conductor

£5 for children

Ideal for children aged 8+ Michael Morpurgo Reader Alison Reid Actor Simon Reade Director Musicians from the Royal Academy of Music

Maw Life Studies (selection) 10’ Shostakovich Two pieces for String Octet Op.11 11’ Hoddinott Clarinet Concerto No 1 15’ Jegede new work 15’ Ravel (arr. Tognetti) Kaddish 5’ Bloch From Jewish Life: Prayer 5’ Mendelssohn String Symphony No 10 10’

This unique performance of words and music is based on Michael Morpurgo’s recent book The Mozart Question, illustrated by Michael Foreman and published by Walker Books. A young English journalist interviews a worldfamous violinist in Venice, and an extraordinary, moving story unfolds - from the master storyteller Morpurgo, author of War Horse and Children's Laureate 2003–05.

This second Festival Academy orchestral concert brings three Jewish-linked works – setting the brilliance of Mendelssohn’s string writing against the soulful intensity of Ravel and Bloch - together with three Cheltenham premieres.

Alun Hoddinott’s early Clarinet Concerto was first heard at Cheltenham in 1954, and its lively confidence announced a major new voice in postwar British music. Nicholas Maw’s ambitious series of Life Studies were premiered in successive Cheltenham festivals in the mid-1970s by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Tunde Jegede’s new piece for strings and kora – the West African harp-lute that he plays with such bewitching delicacy – is the climax of his three-year performance and composition residency at Cheltenham.

Berkhamstead School

EXPLORE

Meurig Bowen in conversation with Tunde Jegede M36 Oval Room, Pittville Pump Room, 10.15am (ends approximately 10.45am) Free Tickets should be booked in advance Supported by The Steel Charitable Trust

M16 M18

Michael Morpurgo

Tunde Jegede

18

M5

Saturday 11 July

Box Office 0844 576 7979

GLOUCESTER & CHICHESTER PSALMS

FRETWORK viol consort BIRDS ON FIRE

M39 Gloucester Cathedral 6.30pm (ends approximately 8.20pm)

M40 Pittville Bistro/Pittville Pump Room 7pm (ends approximately 10pm) performance plus drink on arrival £60 and 3 course meal with wine

£8* £10 £15 £20 £25 Gloucester Cathedral Choir Festival Academy Strings Hannah Atherton & Lucy Bowen Sopranos Adrian Partington Conductor

M41 Pittville Pump Room 9pm (ends approximately 10pm) £10 £14 £18 performance only

Parry I was glad 6’ Purcell Hear my prayer 3’ Mendelssohn Hear my prayer 8’ Allegri Miserere 8’ Lennox Berkeley The Lord is my Shepherd 5’ Bernstein Chichester Psalms 20’ Handel Dixit Dominus 40’

Italian Jewish musicians at the Tudor Court This fascinating programme focuses on music of the Lupos & Bassanos, clandestine Jews brought to England in 1540

by Henry VIII to supplement his court music. Fretwork also perform Orlando Gough’s Birds on Fire, a klezmer-infused work inspired by Aaron Appelfeld’s novel Badenheim 1939.

2 – 23 – 51 – 55 – 100 – 110 – 122 No, these aren’t some random lottery numbers, or an obscure mathematical sequence - they are all psalms set to music in this enticing programme by Gloucester Cathedral Choir. From Allegri’s sublime, soaring Psalm 51 for the Sistine Chapel to Leonard Bernstein’s Hebrew psalms for Chichester Cathedral Choir, these Old Testament texts have inspired the finest musical expression of despair, consolation and rejoicing across the centuries.

'I love this group; I love their timbre, I love the way the individual styles of the viol players tussle against and inform each other, I love the tension of their approach and the sound they create.' Anna Picard, Independent on Sunday M6

From start to finish, Handel’s setting of Psalm 110 is a wonderfully energising experience – with its clean Italianate lines and melodic grace, a remarkable achievement from the 22 year-old newly arrived in Rome.

Alongside Purcell’s compact but hugely affecting lament and the ceremonial sweep of Parry’s anthem for King Edward VII’s coronation, there is Mendelssohn’s Hear my prayer, with its beloved set-piece soprano solo O for the wings of a dove.

Supported by Diana Woolley Lie back and think of… * For £8, soak up the sounds and sights of this stunning building in the Cathedral side aisles, where seats are replaced by your own rugs, blankets or cushions.

M17

Fretwork

Gloucester Cathedral

19

Sunday 12 July

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

the nash ensemble

NATIONAL YOUTH WIND ENSEMBLE NATIONAL YOUTH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

M43 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 12.50pm)

M44 Pittville Pump Room 4.30pm (ends approximately 6.20pm)

£14 £18 £22

£10 £14 £18

Mozart String Quintet in C minor, K 406 23’ Alexander Goehr Clarinet Quintet 18’ Goehr Manere (UK premiere) 7’ Mendelssohn String Quintet in B flat major, Op. 87 32’

Phillip Scott Conductor Christopher Hirons Director

Alongside string quintets (‘viola quintets’) by Mozart and Mendelssohn, the Nash Ensemble perform two recent works by Alexander Goehr. Manere, a short duo for clarinet and violin, was premiered in Germany last October.

Grainger Colonial Song 5’ Richard Rodney Bennett The Four Seasons 19’ Philip Grange Cloud Atlas (premiere) 21’ Shiva Feshareki insistent distortions (premiere) 17’ Haydn Symphony No 100 ‘Military’ 25’

Goehr’s Clarinet Quintet was premiered by the Nash in March 2008, and instantly recognised as one of Goehr’s most compelling works – according to the Evening Standard ‘a work of mellifluous expressivity verging on hedonism’.

The National Youth Wind Ensemble and National Youth Chamber Orchestra are made up of some of the finest instrumentalists in Britain, aged 13-19.

An enterprising commissioning policy results here in the world premiere performances of works by Philip Grange and Shiva Feshareki - who will speak briefly from the stage about their compositions.

EXPLORE

Christopher Cook in conversation with Alexander Goehr M42 Oval Room, Pittville Pump Room 10.15am (ends approximately 10.45am) Free Tickets should be booked in advance.

Recorded for future broadcast

M37

PURCELL’S KING ARTHUR

M45 Cheltenham Town Hall 7.30pm (ends approximately 9.30pm)

M53

£5 £10 £15 £20 £25 Cheltenham Bach Choir The Corelli Orchestra Soloists tba Stephen Jackson Conductor ‘We have at length found an Englishman equal with the best abroad’ wrote John Dryden of Purcell in 1690. In Dryden’s ‘dramatick opera’ there is no Camelot, Guinevere, Round Table or any of the usual Arthurian baggage, rather an improbable tale of battle, sorcery and kidnap whose cast of characters includes Merlin, naked nymphs, a Cold Genius and Oswald the wicked Saxon King of Kent, finally vanquished by Arthur to form a United Kingdom.

Purcell responds to this hokum with some of his greatest music, including the celebrated Frost Scene and one showstopper, Fairest Isle. The mixture of jingoism, sentiment and self-mocking irony is exactly how we celebrate Englishness to this day – at the Last Night of the Proms. A feel-good concert for these troubled times!

M8 M17

The Nash Ensemble

20

Monday 13 July

Box Office 0844 576 7979

WORLD QUARTETS 5 ROYAL String QUARTET & EMMA JOHNSON

BBC RADIO 3’S DISCOVERING MUSIC MAHLER & SCHNITTKE

M46 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 1pm)

M48 Pittville Pump Room 6pm (ends approximately 7.45pm) Free Tickets should be booked in advance

£18 £22 £26

Aronowitz Ensemble with Stephen Johnson Presenter

Mendelssohn Quartet in A minor, Op.13 30’ Szymanowski Quartet No 2, Op. 56 21’ Mozart Clarinet Quintet in A major, K 581 30’

Mahler Piano Quartet in A Minor Schnittke Piano Quartet; Piano Quintet Whilst Gustav Mahler’s mature musical style seems to be fully formed at a very early age – with such a work as his early Piano Quartet movement - the polystylistic leanings of Alfred Schnittke arguably prevented him ever fully realising his own voice. Radio 3’s Discovering Music returns to the festival with Stephen Johnson, presenting an intriguing look at the musical and personal identities of these two composers, and the close links the three works share.

The Polish representatives in the World Quartets series bring their countryman Szymanowski’s second quartet to Cheltenham, a richly-hued work composed in the late 1920s once the composer’s early French impressionist leanings were merged with more local Polish influences.

The Royals, BBC New Generation Artists between 2003-5, are joined by Emma Johnson for one of the jewels of all chamber music, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet.

‘This is music for consenting adults only. Imagine the steamier bits of Wagner’s Tristan, the mystical frenzy of Skryabin and the lusciousness of Ravel’s String Quartet combined together, and you’ll have some idea of Karol Szymanowski’s two string quartets … The Royal String Quartet do them proud.’

The Daily Telegraph Supported by Clive Coates & Ann Murray

M20 M61

SING EAST SING WEST

M47 Cheltenham Town Hall 6pm (ends approximately 7pm) £5

Free for children, unreserved

Emma Johnson

What do ancient chants and lively European wedding songs have in common with Broadway musicals? 200 children from six Gloucestershire schools will find out in this celebration of music from Spain, North Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North America.

A series of workshops and this culminating performance focuses on the Jewish Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions, Judeo-Arabic songs and the influence of klezmer on 20th century American music. Project leaders Liz Terry and Rachel Gay are joined by Joglaresa, a captivating ensemble whose repertoire includes Judeo-Arabic dance songs, Berber rhythms and Moorish romanzas.

See page 29 for full Education funding credits

Royal String Quartet

21

Tuesday 14 July

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

ELIZABETH WATTS BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists

SOMETHING ELSE - Film THE GREAT MR HANDEL

M49 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 12.30pm)

M51 Pittville Campus 5pm (ends 6.40pm)

£14 £18 £22

£5 unreserved In 1942, the bi-centenary year of Messiah’s first performance in Dublin, J Arthur Rank and director Norman Walker collaborated on a film that told the story of this masterwork’s creation; unusually for wartime, it was shot in Technicolour.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra – no doubt fascinatingly out of style to modern taste – laid down the Messiah soundtrack alongside great singers of the day such as Gladys Ripley. A musical and cinematic period-piece in this big Handel anniversary year.

Elizabeth Watts Soprano Paul Turner Piano Schubert Frülingsreise (Spring Journey) 35’ Barber Hermit Songs Op. 29 18’ Britten Six Folksongs 15’ Winner of the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Prize in 2006 and the Rosenblatt Recital Award at the Cardiff Singer of the World in 2007, Elizabeth Watts is now settling into her prime as a lyric soprano of supreme communicative gifts. Her new recording with Roger Vignoles of Schubert Lieder is remarkably assured, displaying an artistry and vocal control well beyond someone still only in her late twenties. Elizabeth’s programme includes her own newly assembled cycle of springtime songs by Schubert – intended as a cheerful counterpart to the three official, and rather miserable, Schubert song cycles.

ANGELA HEWITT

Supported by Patricia Routledge

M52 Pittville Pump Room 7.30pm (ends approximately 9.20pm) £18 £22 £26

M56 M60

Handel Suite No 2 in F major 11’ Bach English Suite No 6 in D minor 26’ Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue No 1 in E minor 7’ Mendelssohn Variations Serieuses 11’ Haydn Sonata in E-flat major, Hob. 52 22’

KEITH NUTLAND AWARD WINNER & GLOUCeSTERSHIRE YOUNG musician M50 St Mary’s Church, Painswick 3pm (ends approximately 4.10pm)

Bach is the composer Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt has built her huge reputation on in the last decade, with her Hyperion recordings and recent worldwide tour of the Well Tempered Klavier. In this recital – her first in Cheltenham – she builds around one of Bach’s English suites a programme featuring the three anniversary composers in 2009.

£7.50 unreserved Liz Faulkner Double Bass Jonathan McNaught Piano Programme to include music by Bach, Chopin, Bloch, Handel, Mendelssohn, Schubert and Rachmaninov.

“ ...one of the reliably mesmerising musicians of the day” The Sunday Times

16 year-old Jonathan McNaught, winner of the 2009 Gloucestershire Young Musician competition, is a student at Pate’s Grammar School. Keith Nutland award-winner Liz Faulkner attended Ribston Hall High School and is now studying at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Elizabeth Watts

Angela Hewitt

22

Recorded for future broadcast

Wednesday 15 July

Box Office 0844 576 7979

WORLD QUARTETS 6 QUATUOR DIOTIMA

SOMETHING ELSE NORMAN LEBRECHT ON MENDELSSOHN & MAHLER

M53 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 12.40pm)

M55 Cheltenham Synagogue, Synagogue Lane 5.30pm (ends 6.30pm)

£14 £18 £22

£5 unreserved

Beethoven Quartet No16 in F major, Op.135 25’ Matthias Pintscher Study IV for Treatise on the Veil (UK premiere) 20’ Ravel Quartet in F major 27’

Mendelssohn, Mahler and the Jewish Question (Is that a yes or no?)

Two influential composers share a common religious and ethnic origin. Does that necessarily affect their music and how we listen to it? Music historian and award-winning novelist Norman Lebrecht presents new research and radical interpretations on the Jewish nature of Felix Mendelssohn and Gustav Mahler, on Jews in western culture and on a great, unmentionable guilt.

Formed over a decade ago by graduates of the Paris and Lyon Conservatoires, the Quatuor Diotima has established itself as one of the world’s finest exponents of both mainstream and contemporary string quartet repertoire. So a programme that combines works by Beethoven and Ravel with a brand new work from much admired German composer Matthias Pintscher will display their qualities admirably. Pintscher has been co-commissioned by Cheltenham, the Salzburg Mozarteum and Kunstfest in Weimar.

Supported by Eleanor Budge & the George Budge Trust

M28 M59

Recorded for future broadcast

GLOUCESTERSHIRE YOUTH ORCHESTRA M56 Cheltenham Town Hall 7.00pm (ends approximately 9.15pm)

£7.50 unreserved Gloucestershire Youth Orchestra Glyn Oxley Conductor

songs of the dispossessed M54 Pittville Pump Room 4pm (ends approximately 5.10pm)

Mendelssohn A Hebrides Overture 10’ Copland Appalachian Spring 23’ Mahler Symphony No 1 50’

£10 unreserved

After Glyn Oxley’s successful debut appearance in 2008 as the GYO’s conductor, he returns with a programme that combines musical depictions of two very different landscapes with Mahler’s first symphony, known as ‘The Titan’.

Catherine Hopper Mezzo-soprano Simon Lepper Pianist tba Harp Ravel Deux Mélodies Hébraïques 10’ Schumann Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart 10’ Dvorak Zigeunermelodien (Gypsy Songs) 12’ Michael Zev Gordon Mandelstam settings (premiere) 20’ Sasha Siem from the white dictionary (premiere) 10’ A recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and currently at the National Opera Studio, Catherine Hopper is one of the UK’s most exciting emerging singing talents.

Her programme, focusing on music about political and social outsiders, is prompted by Michael Zev Gordon’s new settings of poems by the Russian counterrevolutionary Osip Mandelstam. Eva Hoffmann will introduce the work, which has been commissioned by Johanna Roeber. Sasha Siem’s new work for mezzo and harp is a Royal Philharmonic Society/Susan Bradshaw Composers’ Fund commission.

M49 M60

Catherine Hopper

23

Thursday 16 July

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

HAYDN TRIO EISENSTADT

SOMETHING ELSE ALEXANDER WAUGH ON MUSICAL VIENNA

M57 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 12.55pm)

M59 Pittville Pump Room 6pm (ends 7pm)

£14 £18 £22

£5 unreserved

Haydn Trio Eisenstadt Elin Manahan Thomas Soprano

Musical Vienna and the House of Wittgenstein

Haydn Piano Trio in C major Hob. XV/27 20’ Haydn Welsh folksong settings 20’ John Woolrich The Night Will Not Draw On (2009) 9’ Beethoven Piano Trio in B flat, Op 97 ‘Archduke’ 35’

Prior to Christiana Stotijn’s substantially fin de siècle Viennese recital programme, Alexander Waugh – author of the recent biography The House of Wittgenstein - focuses on the Austrian capital’s musical life at that time. As with his enthusiastically received Wittgenstein talk at the The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, Waugh will give examples on the piano as he investigates questions of Jewish musical identity, and the extraordinary musical connections between Jewish figures such as Joseph Joachim, Mahler, Korngold, Goldmark, Schoenberg and the House of Wittgenstein.

M55

Haydn worked loyally for the Esterhazy family at and near Eisenstadt for three decades, creating the majority of his symphonies, chamber music and operas there. The Haydn Trio Eisenstadt, one of Austria’s finest chamber ensembles, has commissioned 18 works from around the world, all of them homages to Haydn. We present John Woolrich’s new work alongside piano trios by Haydn, his one-time pupil Beethoven, and some of Haydn’s arrangements of Welsh folksongs – sung here, in Welsh, by rising star soprano Elin Manahan Thomas.

Recorded for future broadcast

Supported by Elizabeth Jacobs

STOTIJN & DRAKE

M60 Pittville Pump Room 7.30pm (ends approximately 9.20pm)

M11 M53

£14 £18 £22 Christianne Stotijn Mezzo-soprano Julius Drake Piano

SOMETHING ELSE - FILM IN SEARCH OF BEETHOVEN

Mendelssohn Lieder (selection) 20’ Schoenberg Lieder Op. 3 (selection) 15’ Zemlinsky Maeterlinck Songs Op.13 15’ Mahler Des Knaben Wunderhorn (selection) 25’

M58 Pittville Campus 3pm (ends 5.15pm) £5 unreserved

In recent years, Dutch mezzo Christianne Stotijn has established herself as one of the great singers of her generation. Interpretatively and vocally, she will be thoroughly at home in this programme of Austro-German romantic song - tracking Romanticism’s course from the easy lyricism of Mendelssohn to its final utterances in Vienna by Mahler, Schoenberg and his teacher/brother-in-law Zemlinsky.

Phil Grabsky’s new film In Search of Beethoven has brought together some of the world’s leading performers and experts on Beethoven to reveal new insights into this legendary composer. The line-up of performers and interviewees includes Gianandrea Noseda, Roger Norrington, Leif Ove Andsnes, Janine Jansen, Paul Lewis, Emanuel Ax and the Endellion Quartet. Juliet Stevenson narrates.

Supported by the Helena Oldacre Trust

Recorded for future broadcast

M49 M54

Elin Manahan Thomas

Christianne Stotijn

24

Friday 17 July

Box Office 0844 576 7979

WORLD QUARTETS 7 AUSTRALIAN STRING QUARTET

Nicholas kynaston

M63 Gloucester Cathedral 7pm (ends approximately 8.10pm)

M61 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 12.45 pm)

£8 unreserved (includes glass of wine)

£10 £14 £18 Haydn Quartet Op. 76 No 2 20’ Peter Sculthorpe Quartet No 8 16’ Mendelssohn Quartet Op. 44/1 29’

Arne Concerto No 5 in G minor 12’ Smart Andante No 1 6’ Mendelssohn Sonata No 2 12’ Mendelssohn Prelude and Fugue in F minor 9’ Tournemire Pater, dimite illis Op. 67 No 1 9’ Franck Choral No 1 in E major 14’

The Australian String Quartet brings to Cheltenham one of Peter Sculthorpe’s distinctive quartets – music that evokes Australian landscape and nature with astonishing eloquence.

80 years old in 2009, he has now written 17 quartets – one more, he points out, than Beethoven, and two more than Shostakovich. About 65 fewer than Haydn however…

Supported by Mary Mackenzie, Richard Walton & friends

In partnership with Gloucester Cathedral’s organ recital series, we present a programme from Nicholas Kynaston that includes his own arrangement of Mendelssohn’s F minor Prelude and Fugue for piano. CCTV transmission on large screens gives the audience a chance to get close to the hands and feet in the organ loft.

M4 M57

SOMETHING ELSE KIT & THE WIDOW

MARK VINER

M62 Pittville Pump Room 3pm (ends approximately 4pm)

M64 Pittville Bistro/Pittville Pump Room 6.45pm (ends approximately 10.15pm) performance plus drink on arrival £65 and 3 course meal with wine

£8 unreserved Haydn Sonata in B minor Hob. XVI:32 14’ Schumann Etudes Symphoniques Op. 13 9’ Alkan Symphonie from Douze Etudes Op. 39 27’

M65 Pittville Pump Room 9pm (ends approximately 10.15pm) £14 £18 £22 performance only

20 year-old pianist Mark Viner won a scholarship to the Purcell School and is now studying at the Royal College of Music. His programme includes the mighty Symphonie from the Opus 39 of 19th century French virtuoso CharlesValentin Alkan.

If you want music, humour and a delightful setting, this is the perfect summertime Friday night out.

Describing themselves as ‘Western Europe’s Leading Lounge Act’, Kit & the Widow’s brand of sophisticated, delightfully witty musical cabaret is in a class of its own.

As the piano and voice duo of Richard Sisson and Kit Hesketh-Harvey say on their website: ‘If you like Tom Lehrer, Victor Borge, Fascinating Aida, Flanders and Swann or Anna Russell, chances are you’ll like us’.

Supported by John Eaden, Rosemary Harvey M52

Australian String Quartet

Kit & the Widow

25

Saturday 18 July

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

SOMETHING ELSE MACKWOODS FINE TEA & OPERA

WORLD QUARTETS 8 ASHES OCTET

M68 Pittville Pump Room 3pm (ends approximately 5pm)

M66 Pittville Pump Room 11am (ends approximately 12.55pm) £14 £18 £22

£8 unreserved

Australian String Quartet Barbirolli String Quartet *

After the huge success of such a pairing last year, Mackwoods Fine Tea presents an afternoon tea tasting and opera cabaret.

Beethoven Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 ‘Serioso’ 22’ * Britten Quartet No 2 28’ * Mendelssohn Octet in E flat major, Op. 20 33’

Mackwoods, with its 160 year heritage, produces a full range of unblended Single Estate Black teas on their own plantations in Sri Lanka. This event combines a range of popular opera arias and duets with a formal tea tasting, expertly led by Mackwoods’ highly trained personnel flown in specially from Sri Lanka.

As a fitting climax to the World Quartets series in this 2009 Festival, two quartets join together to perform Mendelssohn’s mighty achievement from his teens, the Octet. It is particularly apt that an Australian quartet joins a British one - the Barbirollis who made a distinguished Cheltenham debut in 2008 - on the third day of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s.

Supported by Sir Michael McWilliam

M43 M46

SOMETHING ELSE WOOD, GLUE, GUT AND VARNISH

SOMETHING ELSE THE HUMOUR OF HOFFNUNG

M69 Drawing Room, Cheltenham Town Hall 5.45pm (ends 6.45pm)

M67 Pittville Campus 1.30pm (ends approximately 2.30pm)

£5

£5 unreserved

unreserved

The Science of String Instruments Martin Coath & Kai-Thomas Roth

An illustrated talk by Annetta Hoffnung

String instruments are iconic works of art, and essential tools for making some of the world’s most popular music. Even some of the most prosaic questions we could ask about them - such as ‘what holds them together’? - have answers that make you look at these familiar objects in a whole new light.

Martin Coath (researcher in auditory neuroscience, and violinist) and Kai-Thomas Roth (luthier, and past Chairman of the British Violin Makers Association) will take you on a whistle-stop tour with illustrations and demonstrations to get everyone closer to the wood, glue, gut, and varnish!

On the last day of our Hoffnung exhibition in the Pittville Campus’ Summerfield Gallery (see next page), Gerard Hoffnung’s widow Annetta talks about this brilliant artist, broadcaster, comedian and cartoonist. With hilarious clips from his famous Royal Festival Hall concerts and rare footage of Hoffnung himself, she gives a unique insight into her husband’s legacy.

M33

Barbirolli String Quartet

Gerard and Annetta Hoffnung

26

Saturday 18 July

Box Office 0844 576 7979

HALLÉ FINALE

M70 Cheltenham Town Hall 7.30pm (ends approximately 9.30pm) £5 £12 £18 £24 £30 Hallé Orchestra Vilde Frang Violin Edward Gardner Conductor Adès Overture, Waltz and Finale from Powder Her Face 10’ Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor 28’ Britten Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes 15’ Sibelius Symphony No 5 30’ With such a longstanding history of appearances in Cheltenham - particularly with John Barbirolli in the 1950s - it is fitting that the Hallé finish off the 65th Festival in celebratory style.

Edward Gardner, once a chorister nearby in Gloucester Cathedral and now making a big name for himself as Music Director of English National Opera, teams up with the Hallé in a programme that combines two orchestral favourites with music by Britten and Adès. Britten’s Four Sea Interludes were premiered at the very first Cheltenham Music Festival in 1945, just five days after Peter Grimes’ auspicious London premiere. Likewise, another important Cheltenham premiere is marked with Thomas Adès’ stunning re-working of material from his first opera Powder Her Face, heard for the first time in Cheltenham in 1995.

Edward Gardner

You may not have heard of Vilde Frang, because she’s young and she hasn’t performed very much in the UK yet.

But she’s being tipped for greatness, and you might well be able to say in years to come: ‘I heard her first in Cheltenham in 2009…’

‘The golden era may be happening right now.’

The Guardian on The Hallé, 2008 Supported by the Oldham Foundation

M23 M26

Vilde Frang

Hallé Orchestra

27

Exhibitions

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

HOFFNUNG

PAINTED QUARTETS

A 50th anniversary exhibition

To honour Haydn, the ‘father of the string quartet’, a range of artists have been invited to transform condemned violins, violas and cellos for a Cheltenham-wide exhibition of Painted Quartets. At the time of going to press, it is anticipated there will be 20 instruments - five quartets exhibited, including one entire quartet by celebrated local artist PJ Crook.

Gerard Hoffnung died tragically young at the age of 34 in 1959. Coming to London from Berlin as a schoolboy refugee in 1939, his precocious talents for drawing and caricature led to enormous success throughout the 1950s as an artist, cartoonist, broadcaster and musician.

Curated in association with Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, the Quartets will be exhibited in the Summerfield Gallery at Pittville Campus, at CAGM itself, and in other locations around Cheltenham. The instruments will subsequently be auctioned for charity.

This exhibition, unique to Cheltenham in this anniversary year, gives a rare chance to see the full range of Hoffnung’s comic and artistic genius - childhood drawings, illustrative watercolours, bespoke musical instruments and the originals of all his beloved musical sketches. It will surprise and delight in equal measure.

Saturday 4 – Saturday 18 July Go to cheltenhamfestivals.com for further information and opening times

Summerfield Gallery, Pittville Campus Saturday 4 – Saturday 18 July Go to cheltenhamfestivals.com for opening times

Cello by PJ Crook

REMNANTS OF OUR TIME

Cello by Lincoln Seligman

Inspired by Water

Sculpture by Josie Spencer Life-size figurative works in bronze and clay.

Pittville Pump Room: collonade and Oval Room.

Sales will benefit HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival www.josiespencer.com

Photography by Elizabeth Jacobs Town Hall

A BIRD’S EYE VIEW

Photography by Nicki Gwynn-Jones Pittville Pump Room

28

Box Office 0844 576 7979

Box Office 0844 576 7979

MANTRA

Saturday 4 July Pupils from KS3 and 4 perform their own composition with the Orlando Consort and British Asian musicians Kuljit Bhamra, Jonathan Mayer and Shahid Khan. This follows an innovative school-based project blending the musical traditions of India with those of medieval Europe.

See page 8 for concert information

TUNDE JEGEDE

Musician Tunde Jegede (kora and cello) is joined by his long-term collaborator, spoken word artist HKB Finn, for a series of workshops, marking the culmination of a threeyear project to bring classical and urban musicians in Gloucestershire together.

FESTIVAL ACADEMY AND THE NATIONAL STAR COLLEGE

Wednesday 8 July In this unique and highly successful collaboration, now in its 5th year, the Festival Academy takes part in a day of workshops with performing arts students at the National Star College, a centre for young adults with acquired brain injuries. Led by charismatic young conductor Will Carslake, this year’s project involves both students and musicians in producing the musical accompaniment to a short piece of drama. The highlight of the day is a performance for friends, supporters and fellow students. If you are interested in attending this, please contact philippa.claridge@cheltenhamfestivals.com

PAINTED QUARTETS

In this stunning visual component of the Music Festival, school and community groups will have the opportunity to participate by painting and decorating two-dimensional violins on card – for exhibition around Cheltenham, and with an accompanying educational resource, including audio, on the history of the string quartet.

SING EAST, SING WEST

FREE FOR SCHOOLS

Monday 13 July Liz Terry, Rachel Gay and Joglaresa lead workshops in six Gloucestershire primary schools – culminating in a performance on the Town Hall stage that celebrates the musical and cultural connections from Spain, North Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North America.

As part of our commitment to making the Cheltenham Music Festival accessible to all, we are once again offering free tickets for accompanied school groups across the entire programme. These tickets are subject to availability, and booking opens on 11 May 2009. You can book online at cheltenhamfestivals.com/education or contact Nicola Tuxworth on 01242 775822 for more information.

See page 21 for concert information.

This is a fantastic opportunity for pupils to experience the thrill of live music making at the highest level, so why not start planning your visit today?

Our Education programme is supported by: The Steel Charitable Trust

GOOD VIBRATIONS

In collaboration with Good Vibrations, Cheltenham Festivals’ Javanese gamelan goes to HMP Eastwood Park 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. At the end of the week, members of the Cheltenham Gamelan Community Players will join participants for a concert.

29

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

FIESTA IN THE PARK Saturday 4 July Pittville Park, 1.30 – 6pm On the Festival’s first Saturday afternoon, HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival is collaborating with the Cheltenham Strategic Partnership on a major community event in Pittville Park.

Running throughout the afternoon until early evening, this will involve a huge range of music from around the world - including Indonesian gamelan workshops, Eastern European klezmer, Brazilian samba, Indian Bhangra, brass bands and local choirs.

There will be lots of food stalls, face-painting, a large bouncy castle and other inflatables, circus performers, Play Rangers, Punch & Judy and DJ workshops. Fiesta in the Park will also feature the climactic finale of the local talent competition U-Factor.

Look out for separate flyers about this exciting new event for all the family, or to go cheltenhamfestivals.com for further information.

Helping students research and apply for practice-based music courses at UK conservatoires.

Visit

for more information

Festival Academy Supporters

Box Office 0844 576 7979

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

Thank You The Festival Academy brings together the finest young musicians from the UK’s conservatoires with professionals for an intensive week of rehearsals, workshops and performances.

HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival is deeply grateful to those who gave with exceptional generosity to this special cause.

Peter and Marianne Allan Mary Mackenzie and Richard Walton Robert Clark and Susan Costello M.A. Baldwin Roderick Barrand John Beard Ria Brockbank Christine Chambers Simon Collings Alan Cook Mrs Gill Corney Mrs Alexandra Davies Mary and Duncan Douglas Andrew and Daphne Ellis E. Gemmill Professor and Mrs J.S. Harrison Jim Hawkins Paul Hearn Mr E.G. Hunt Roger Jones Tom and Rose Jump Graham and Eileen Lockwood June and Peter Marychurch Jo Miller Robert Padgett Ken Plant John Ricketts Tony Ridlington Richard and Catriona Smith Dennis Southwick Penny Steer Carol Stewart Michael Storm Janet and Peter Thornton Ann Tilley Ann Warne John and Gina Wilson Margaret Winterbourne Anonymous

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

Legacies of all sizes play a valuable role in ensuring that the Festival will continue to inspire the performers, composers and conductors of the future. If you choose to remember Cheltenham Music Festival in this valuable way, please contact Rose Wood in confidence.

Rose Wood, Legacy Officer Cheltenham Festivals, 109 Bath Road, Cheltenham GL53 7LS rose.wood@cheltenhamfestivals.com

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

Name Address

Postcode 31

Box Office 0844 576 7979

Patrons

Acknowledgements

Life Patron

Festival Patron

Charles Fisher

Mark and Maria Bentley

Graham and Eileen Lockwood

Stephen and Victoria Bond

Corporate Patron

Robert Cawthorne and Catherine White

HSBC Willans

Simon Collings Christopher Dreyfus Viscount Esher

Peter and Anne Bond

James Fleming

Jennifer Bryant-Pearson

Kate Fleming

Michael and Angela Cronk

Reade and Elizabeth Griffith

Howard and Jay Milton

Huw and Nicki Gwynn-Jones

David and Clare Astor Erica Austin

Marianne Hinton Stephen Hodge

Jack and Dora Black

Anthony Hoffman and Dr Christine Facer Hoffman

Eleanor Budge

Richard and Peta Hoyle

Clive Coates and Ann Murray

Simon and Emma Keswick

Michael and Felicia Crystal Wallace and Morag Dobbin Mr and Mrs P J Elliott Lord and Lady Hoffmann Elizabeth Jacobs Penelope Lomax Sir Peter and Lady Marychurch

Martin Knight Mark McKergow and Jenny Clarke Rosamund and Geoff Marshall Professor Angela Newing Andrew and Sheila North Robert Padgett Sir David and Lady Pepper Leslie Perrin Hugh Poole-Warren

Sir Michael McWilliam

Jonathon Porritt

Mary and Timothy Mitchell

Sarah E Priday

The Helena Oldacre Trust

Patricia Routledge CBE

Esther and Peter Smedvig

Lavinia Sidgwick

Fiona and David Symondson

Jonathan and Gail Taylor

Janet Wedge

Professor Lord Winston

Steve and Eugenia Winwood

Anne Wood

Peter and Alison Yiangou

President Dame Judi Dench CH Vice-Presidents Eleanor Budge Charles Fisher Edward Gillespie Graham Lockwood Sir John Manduell CBE Sir Peter Marychurch KCMG Ion Trewin Chair, Board of Directors Sir Michael McWilliam Chief Executive Donna Renney HR & Office Manager Helena Bibby Finance Office Paul Jenkins Jenny Kolot Executive Assistants Carol Malcolmson Carol Stephenson Development Office Laura Brand Phyllida Clifford Holmes Claire Coleman Kathryn Honeywill Legacy Officer Rose Wood Press & Marketing Fenner Curtis Ian George Amy Hulyer Si창n Morgan Laura Parker Pete Riley Education Philippa Claridge Nicola Tuxworth Production Manager Adrian Hensley Box Office Manager Sue Davis Brand & Festival Design Tijuana Brand Consultant Howard Milton Company Secretary Margaret Austen Honorary Treasurer Dr David Wood Auditors Hazelwoods

Jonathan and Daphne Carr

Platinum Patron

Gold Patron

Cheltenham Festivals

Ben and Fiona White

Michael and Jacqueline Woof

Covers & instrument photography by Kirsty Mackay Photo credits: Anthony Hall, Arena PAL, Blow Up Agency, Caroline Forbes, Colin Bell, Dan Welldon, Edward Webb, Eric Richmond, Gary Houlder, Hanya Chlala, Jack Liebeck, Jacqui Way, Photography, John Batten, Michael Robert Williams, Nickas Jessen, Sunara Begum, Thomas Mueller, Universal, BBC/Jonathan Root, John Matty, Nick Cunard 33

Registered Office 28 Imperial Square Cheltenham GL50 1RH Registered No. 456573 Charity No. 251765 VAT Registration No. 274184644 Main Switchboard Number 01242 774400 HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival Director Meurig Bowen Festival Organiser Holly Traynor Development Manager Nicola Lawson Festival Assistant Robin Purser Festival Chairman Christopher Cook PR Consultant JBP Public Relations 0117 9073400 Music Festival Advisory Group Christopher Cook Brian Carvell Jim Harrison Kate Hicks-Beech Lyndon Jones Ben Nicholas Sarah Priday Diggory Seacome Paul Smith The 65th HSBC 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.

HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival is a member of The British Arts Festivals Association www.artsfestival.co.uk Association of British Orchestras

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Pittville Bistro with Fosters Events Open daily from 10am Once again, Cheltenham Music Festival hosts Fosters Events catering at the Pittville Bistro.

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 01242 581486.

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Planning a stopover? let cheltenham tourist information find whatever you have in mind – be it a chic hotel﹐ welcoming b&b﹐ luxury apartment or a country cottage﹒﹒﹒ Use our FREE accommodation booking service either online at www.VisitCheltenham.info or give us a call – or come in to the Tourist Information Centre when you arrive.

VisitCheltenham, 77 Promenade, Cheltenham Mon to Sat: 9.30am–5.15pm Weds: 10am–5.15pm

Tel: 01242 522878 www.VisitCheltenham.info

Email: info@cheltenham.gov.uk 35

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

Festival Programme Book Only £9 100 pages Excellent value Cheltenham Music Festival programme books are a fascinating source of information, enhancing your enjoyment of the festival. They are something you’ll get a lot out of during the festival, as well as being something you’ll want to keep for future reference.

Bespoke notes on each concert Comprehensive artist and composer biographies Feature articles on varied aspects of the festival programme You can pre-order the 2009 programme book when you book your tickets, or you can buy them at any festival event in July.

From

£15 each year

Join the Cheltenham Festivals Membership Scheme and: Director’s Picks

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Seating Plans

Box Office 0844 576 7979

KEY

STAGE

Restricted view Unreserved restricted view No chairs - bring a cushion!

Pillar Yellow & Green price categories in the Town Hall side balconies are No view and Restricted view respectively

STALLS

Top price tickets

Lowest price tickets

Stage

STALLS

SIDE BALCONY

SIDE BALCONY

GALLERY

Cheltenham Town Hall

Gloucester Cathedral

Stage

Stage

Tewkesbury Abbey

Pittville PUmp room 37

Elevated

At a glance Glance Event

Date

M1 Fri 3 July

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com

Time

Event

Venue

4pm

Benjamin Zander

Pittville Pump Room

5.30pm Festival Evensong

Cheltenham College Chapel

M2

7.30pm Hollywood Rhapsody

Town Hall

M3

10.15am EXPLORE: Roxanna Panufnik and Wendy Cope

Pittville Pump Room

WORLD QUARTETS 1: Endellion String Quartet

Pittville Pump Room

-

M4

11am

1.30pm Fiesta in the Park (See page 30)

M5 M6

Sat 4 July

Pittville Pump Room & Park

3pm

SOMETHING ELSE: Meet the Instruments

Pittville Pump Room

4pm

SOMETHING ELSE: Mantra

St Matthew’s Church

5.45pm SOMETHING ELSE: Handel, Hendrix and Coram Boy

M7

7pm

A Handel Celebration

Town Hall

M9

10pm

WORLD QUARTETS 2: The Smith Quartet

Town Hall, Pillar Room

10.15am EXPLORE: Harrison Birtwistle in conversation

M11

11am

Brendel / Felner / Williams

Pittville Pump Room

2pm

Wells Cathedral School Symphony Orchestra

Town Hall

Sun 5 July

4.30pm SOMETHING ELSE: Robert Winston and Stephen Johnson

Town Hall

M14

5.45pm Dinner / Bampton Classical Opera

Pittville Bistro / Pump Room

M15

6.30pm Bampton Classical Opera

Pittville Pump Room

M16 M17

Mon 6 July

M18 M19

Tues 7 July

11am

CHAMBER MENDELSSOHN 1

Pittville Pump Room

7.30pm Trinity College Choir, Cambridge

Tewkesbury Abbey

11am

CHAMBER MENDELSSOHN 2

Pittville Pump Room

5pm

SOMETHING ELSE: Stockhausen & Helicopters

Pittville Campus, Uni of Glos

7.30pm WORLD QUARTETS 3: Borodin String Quartet

M20

Ensemble l’Aia

Pittville Pump Room

3pm

Claire Jones

St Swithin’s Church, Quenington

6pm

Nicola Benedetti and Orchestra Europa

Town Hall

M24

9pm

SOMETHING ELSE: David Rees-Williams Trio

Pittville Pump Room

M25

9pm

David Rees-Williams Trio with cheese & wine

Pittville Pump Room

M26

11am

FESTIVAL ACADEMY 1

Pittville Pump Room

M27

3pm

Claire Jones

St Eadburgha’s Church, Broadway

7pm

SOMETHING ELSE: Fiddler on the Hoof

Pittville Campus, Uni of Glos

7pm

Pre Concert Dinner / Kol Simcha

Pittville Bistro / Pump Room

M22 M23

M28

Wed 8 July

Thurs 9 July

M29

8.30pm SOMETHING ELSE: Kol Simcha

M30

M31 M32 M33 M34 M35

Fri 10 July

11am

WORLD QUARTETS 4: Ingrid Fliter and Meta4

3pm

FESTIVAL ACADEMY 2

M38 M41

9

M21 M39 M19

10

M53 M56 M69

11

12

M20 M26 M39

M37 13

M9

M8 M45

14

M12 M70

M2 M37

15

M55 M59

Pittville Pump Room

M20 16

Pittville Pump Room

Steven Isserlis

Pittville Pump Room Holy Apostles Church

38

8

M24

9.30pm FESTIVAL ACADEMY 3

7pm

M66

Pittville Pump Room

Holy Apostles Church

5.30pm SOMETHING ELSE: The Genius of Antonio Stradivari

M26

Pittville Pump Room

11am

M21

7

Pittville Pump Room

M12 M13

Like This?

Queen’s Hotel

M8

M10

Page

M35 M69

17

M11

Book online cheltenhamfestivals.com Event

Date

Time

Event

10.15am EXPLORE: Tunde Jegede in conversation

M36

Venue

Page

Like This?

18

M16 M18

Pittville Pump Room

M37

11am

FESTIVAL ACADEMY 4

Pittville Pump Room

M38

3pm

SOMETHING ELSE: Michael Morpurgo

Pittville Pump Room

M5

Gloucester Cathedral

M17

M39

Sat 11 July

6.30pm Gloucester & Chichester Psalms

M40

7pm

Pre Concert Dinner / Fretwork

Pittville Bistro / Pump Room

M41

9pm

Fretwork

Pittville Pump Room

10.15am EXPLORE: Alexander Goehr in conversation

M42 M43 M44

Sun 12 July

M45

M46 Mon 13 July

11am

Nash Ensemble

Pittville Pump Room

7.30pm Cheltenham Bach Choir

Town Hall

M8 M17

M20 M61

11am

WORLD QUARTETS 5: Royal String Quartet

Pittville Pump Room

Sing East Sing West

Town Hall

BBC Radio 3’s Discovering Music

Pittville Pump Room

M49

11am

Elizabeth Watts

Pittville Pump Room

3pm

Gloucestershire Young Musicians

St Mary’s Church, Painswick

5pm

SOMETHING ELSE: The Great Mr Handel

Pittville Campus, Uni of Glos

M51

7.30pm Angela Hewitt

M52

M53 M54 M55

Wed 15 July

11am

WORLD QUARTETS 6: Quatuor Diotima

Pittville Pump Room

4pm

Catherine Hopper

Pittville Pump Room

5.30pm SOMETHING ELSE: Norman Lebrecht

Cheltenham Synagogue

7pm

Gloucestershire Youth Orchestra

Town Hall

M57

11am

Haydn Trio Eisenstadt

Pittville Pump Room

3pm

SOMETHING ELSE: In Search of Beethoven

Pittville Campus, Uni of Glos

6pm

SOMETHING ELSE: Alexander Waugh on Musical Vienna

Pittville Pump Room

M59

Thurs 16 July

7.30pm Christianne Stotjin and Julius Drake

M60

11am

M61 M62 M63

Fri 17 July

M65

M66 Sat 18 July

23

M49 M60 M28 M59

M11 M53 24

M55

M4 M57

Mark Viner

Pittville Pump Room Gloucester Cathedral

M52 25

Pittville Bistro / Pump Room

9pm

SOMETHING ELSE: Kit & the Widow

Pittville Pump Room

11am

WORLD QUARTETS 8: Australian and Barbirolli Quartets

Pittville Pump Room

SOMETHING ELSE: Mackwoods Tea and Opera

22

Pittville Pump Room

Nicholas Kynaston

3pm

M56 M60

M49 M54

1pm

1.30pm SOMETHING ELSE: Annetta Hoffnung

M67

21

Pittville Pump Room

7pm

6.45pm Pre Concert Dinner / Kit & the Widow

M64

M68

WORLD QUARTETS 7: Australian String Quartet

M37

Pittville Pump Room

M56

M58

M53

Pittville Pump Room

6pm

Tues 14 July

20

4.30pm National Youth Wind Ensemble and Chamber Orchestra

6pm

M50

M6

Pittville Pump Room

M48

M47

19

Pittville Campus, Uni of Glos Pittville Pump Room

M69

5.45pm SOMETHING ELSE: Wood, Glue, Gut and Varnish

Town Hall

M70

7.30pm Hallé Finale

Town Hall

M43 M46 26 M33 27

M23 M26

Booking Form Event No

Box Office 0844 576 7979

Area (1st choice)

Area (2nd choice)

No of tickets

Concession code

Programme Book

Price

Total

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

£

No of copies

Total

Order your Programme Book in advance at £9 per copy

£ Subtotal £

Concession codes M Member FM Founding member B4 Free ticket D Disabled C Child TT Ten together

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Box Office 0844 576 7979

Tickets on sale from 10am Monday 20 April 2009

Membership

Members’ tickets on sale from 10am Monday 6 April Remember to book early for the best seats & for a chance to grab our special £5 tickets!

Festival Website cheltenhamfestivals.com

Get the latest and most complete information online and book 24hrs a day. No concessions are available online

Festival Box Office 0844 576 7979 Mon-Fri 10am-8pm Sat 9.30am-5.30pm

In person

Town Hall, Imperial Square, Cheltenham GL50 1QA Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm During the festival the box office will close at 7.45pm or 15mins after the start of the last Town Hall event

Save 20% on your choice of five events at the Cheltenham Music Festival when you become a member from just £15 each year. Festivals’ family membership allows a discount of 20% on 5 events for 2 adults and up to 4 children from only £47.

If you are a member or founding member, you can apply your membership discount on full price tickets to your choice of 5 events. Please refer to your membership welcome letter for more details.

If you are a founding member, you can apply your existing 10% discount to any further ticket bookings.

Please note that membership discounts cannot be applied to tickets which include food or drink in the price.

Free For Schools All non-dining events have a limited number of free places for accompanied school groups – contact Philippa Claridge on 01242 77 5891 for information from Monday 11 May. Standby Tickets 50% discount available on the day at the venue from 30mins before the performance to U25 / Students / Unemployed with appropriate ID. Limited to 1 ticket per booker. Subject to availability.

Other options available until 48hrs before the event • boxoffice@cheltenham.gov.uk • Fax: 01242 573 902 - using booking form opposite • Post: using booking form opposite & including an SAE

Disabled Patrons & Support Workers/Assistants

Tickets For £5

Group Booking

All Town Hall Main Hall events have a limited number of £5 tickets available – these may be restricted view. This offer is limited to two £5 tickets/event per booker. They are available from April 20.

Book 10 tickets for any 1 event and get the 10th absolutely FREE!

Refunds The Festival cannot refund money or exchange tickets, except in the case of a cancelled performance.

Concessions Concessions are only applicable to events taking place at the Town Hall and do not apply to any tickets which include food or drink in the price.

Disabled patrons are entitled to 50% off their ticket price and a free ticket for their support worker/assistant on production of relevant ID. These tickets need to be collected in person. For information about access please see our website for venue contact details.

Keep In Touch!

• Visit our website for the latest news or to contact us with ideas & feedback • Register online for our enewsletter packed with the latest music news, competitions & special offers 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.

Concert and Dining Packages Please go to cheltenhamfestivals.com for full menu information.

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

Budvar Cheltenham Jazz Festival 28 April – 4 May The Times Cheltenham Science Festival 3 – 7 June HSBC Cheltenham Music Festival 3 – 18 July The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival 9 – 18 October for the latest updates visit cheltenhamfestivals.com

Maps Cheltenham

Gloucestershire

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A40

A40

A435

Hig h St reet

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CIRENCESTER St re et

QUENINGTON A417

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College Road

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Suffolk Road

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1 Cheltenham College Chapel

GL53 7LD

2 Cheltenham Synagogue

GL50 3PU

ark 3 Cheltenham Town Hall The P

GL50 1QA

4 Queen’s Hotel

GL50 1NN

5 Pittville Pump Room,

Pittville Bistro & Pittville Park

GL52 3JE

6 St Matthew’s Church

GL50 3PL

7 Summerfield Gallery

GL52 3JG

8 University of Gloucestershire,

Pittville Campus

GL52 3JG

9 Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum

GL50 3JT

Festival maps sponsored by

Gloucestershire A Gloucester Cathedral B St Eadburgha’s Church, Broadway C St Mary’s Church, Painswick

Montpellier Gardens Montpellier Terrace

thedaffodil.co.uk

A417

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A429

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St George’s Place

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2

Prom enad e Reg ent Stre et

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Square St James

Clarence Street

Portla nd Stre et

C A46

D St Swithin’s Church, Quenington E

Tewkesbury Abbey

F

Holy Apostles, Charlton Kings

GL1 2BH WR12 7AE GL6 6QA GL6 6QA GL20 5RZ GL52 6HW

Information

For information on the best places to eat, sleep and drink during your visit to the festival, check out

cheltenhamfestivals.com/visitorinformation

or visit the Info Point during the festival. For information on travel to the festival try crosscountrytrains.co.uk

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3 – 18 July Box Office 0844 576 7979 cheltenhamfestivals.com

Ne w ex ! M c e se lusi mb e p ve e ag dis rs e 3 co h 6 un ip

Media Partners

ts

fo r

3 – 18 July Box Office 0844 576 7979 cheltenhamfestivals.com

Ne w ex ! M c e se lusi mb e p ve e ag dis rs e 3 co h 6 un ip

Media Partners

ts

fo r

3 – 18 July Box Office 0844 576 7979 cheltenhamfestivals.com

Ne w ex ! M c e se lusi mb e p ve e ag dis rs e 3 co h 6 un ip

Media Partners