After more than 30 successful years as Artistic Director, Autumn in Malvern founder Peter Smith MBE, FRSA has stepped down. Peter established a landmark event, celebrated for its diverse and authentic content, and Malvern Theatres is proud to have been asked to continue his legacy.
Classical music has always been at the heart of Autumn in Malvern, with a particular emphasis on English music from the last 100 years. Literature and the visual arts also feature, especially work with a local connection. These traditions will continue, as will the festival’s adoption of many wonderful venues across the town. For 2025 this includes Great Malvern Priory, Elmslie House, Christ Church and Malvern College, as well as at the Festival and Forum Theatres, Malvern Cinema and Studio One.
This year’s festival will feature music by Elgar, Britten, Finzi, and Stanford, as well as works by contemporary composers Ian Venables, Liz Dilnot Johnson and Kate Hill. We’ll celebrate the music of Broadway with old friends Stephen Sondheim and Jacqui Dankworth, Clarinettist Emma Johnson as soloist and conductor with her own Orchestra for the Environment, a unique programme from members of Armonico Consort, recitals from The Gildas Quartet and Leeds Piano Competition Winner Alim Beisembayev, and concerts from The Elgar Chorale, The Jenny Lind Singers, and the internationally renowned choir Tenebrae.
The festival is generously supported by The Laura Knight Society, who present their annual lecture in Studio One, The Francis Brett Young Society, The Housman Society and The Ivor Gurney Society (Gurney’s settings of Housman’s poetry are featured in A Recital of English Song on October 11th).
We are also celebrating Jane Austen’s 250th anniversary with a new stage adaptation of Emma, so I’ll finish with some particularly apt words from the novel: ‘Without music, life would be a blank to me.’
We look forward to welcoming you to the festival later this year.
Fred Moroni Chief Executive Malvern Theatres
FESTIVAL DIARY
Wednesday 1st October 7.30pm Festival Theatre
Jacqui Dankworth: The Sondheim Songbook
Thursday 2nd October 7.30pm Forum Theatre
Emma Johnson and the Orchestra of the Environment
Friday 3rd October 7pm Great Malvern Priory
Tenebrae – English Glories
Tuesday 7th October 11am Malvern Cinema
Artemisia Gentileschi: Warrior Painter
Thursday 9th October 2pm Malvern Cinema
All About Clare introduced by Michael Hall
Saturday 11th October 12 noon Great Malvern Priory
Piers Maxim Organ Recital
Saturday 11th October 3pm Studio One
Dame Laura Knight Society Lecture
Sunday 12th October 3pm Christ Church, Avenue Road
An English Song Recital
Monday 13th October 7.30pm Festival Theatre
Jane Austen’s Emma
Tuesday 14th October 7.30pm Festival Theatre
Jane Austen’s Emma
Wednesday 15th October 2.30 & 7.30pm Festival Theatre
Jane Austen’s Emma
Wednesday 15th October 7pm Elmslie House, Avenue Road
The Jenny Lind Singers
Thursday 16th October 7.30pm Festival Theatre
Jane Austen’s Emma
Friday 17th October 7.30pm Festival Theatre
Jane Austen’s Emma
Friday 17th October 7.30pm Malvern College, Big School
Alim Beisembayev
Saturday 18th October 2.30 & 7.30pm Festival Theatre
Jane Austen’s Emma
Saturday 18th October 5.15pm Forum Theatre
Armonico Consort Chaconne!
Saturday 18th October 7.30pm Great Malvern Priory
The Elgar Chorale
Sunday 19th October 3pm Malvern College, Big School
The Gildas Quartet
The internationally acclaimed vocalist Jacqui Dankworth takes to the stage to celebrate the incredible musical legacy of American composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim - in an intimate concert featuring a sparkling collection of his music, inspired by Jacqui’s own collaborations with Sondheim.
Sondheim’s brilliance in combining lyrics and music broke new ground in Musical Theatre, and his work would go on to cover an incredible spectrum of workfrom West Side Story and Gypsy, through to Into The Woods, Sweeny Todd, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Follies So, Join Jacqui and a hand-picked group of world-class musicians as she steers you through a selection of Sondheim’s most celebrated work – alongside stylish reworkings of his lesser-known gems.
‘Had I not been sitting about three feet away from the action I would have suspected some kind of electronic trickery because the arrangement was so complex, the timing so nifty, and Ms Dankworth’s vocal control so exquisite’ The Observer
‘One of our finest singers, regardless of category’ The Sunday Times
‘Makes almost any material sound special’ The Guardian
‘Seriously good. Beautifully sung and written and superbly played’ The Observer
Emma Johnson MBE is a clarinettist who has made a name as a best-selling soloist and recording artist. She won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition when she was 17 and has since recorded over 30 albums and given concerts all over the world. In 2023 she founded the Orchestra for the Environment. This is a group of hand-picked virtuoso players who all share concerns about the environment. They endeavour to travel in the greenest way possible to concerts and they make a point of performing, alongside the classics, repertoire which draws inspiration from nature.
For this special programme for Autumn in Malvern, Emma Johnson is the soloist in Finzi’s late ‘autumnal’ Clarinet Concerto and in Vaughan Williams’s English Folk Song Studies. She also directs the orchestra in music by Elgar, Holst and Britten.
Elgar: Serenade for Strings
Finzi: Clarinet Concerto
Vaughan Williams: Six Studies in English Folk Song for Clarinet and Strings
Holst: Brook Green Suite
Britten: Simple Symphony
Emma Johnson
Described as “phenomenal” (The Times) and “devastatingly beautiful” (Gramophone Magazine), award-winning choir Tenebrae, under the direction of Nigel Short, is one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles renowned for its passion and precision. Tenebrae performs at major festivals and venues across the globe, including the BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Rheingau Musik Festival and Sydney Festival. The choir has earned international acclaim for its interpretations of choral music from the Renaissance through to contemporary masterpieces. In Malvern, Tenebrae perform a programme of 16th-century English repertoire, with works by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd at its heart, music that is perfectly suited to the acoustic and atmosphere of Great Malvern Priory.
Robert White: Christe qui lux es III
William Byrd: Mass for four voices
Robert White: Exaudiat te Dominus 9:30
Thomas Tallis: Loquebantur
Thomas Tallis: O sacrum convivium
Thomas Tallis: Sancte Deus
Thomas Tallis: Miserere nostril
Robert White: Christe qui lux es IV
William Mundy: Vox Patris caelestis
“For purity and precision of tone, and flawless intonation, Nigel Short’s chamber choir Tenebrae is pretty much unbeatable” The Times
ENGLISH GLORIES
DIRECTED BY NIGEL SHORT
Portrait of Clare C (P g) (
A rare opportunity to see Lance Comfort’s 1950s film version of the prize-winning novel by Worcestershire author Francis Brett Young (1884-1954). Strangely forgotten today, Brett Young was a hugely successful novelist in the 1920s and 30s. In 1927 Portrait of Clare won the prestigious James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
Piers Maxim: Organ Recital
Dubois: Fiat Lux, No.8 from 12 Pièces Nouvelles
Saint-Saens: Fantaisie No.1 in E flat
Franck: Symphony in D minor (transcribed by Calvin Hampton)
Retiring collection in support of
Malvern Priory Thurs 9th Oct 2pm Malvern Cinema £8.50 / £7.50 Price includes 12% booking fee
Dame Laura Knight Society Lecture
Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920
Tim Batchelor (Assistant Curator of Tate Modern)
Chaired by Evie
Knight
This year’s Dame Laura Knight Society Lecture gives an overview of the exhibition ‘Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 15201920’ which was held at Tate Britain from May to October 2024. The exhibition featured over 230 works by more than 100 different women artists, working over 400 years. While introducing the themes and structure of the exhibition, it will focus on some of the key artists including Mary Beale, Angelica Kauffman, Lady Butler and Gwen John. It will also reflect on some aspects of organising the exhibition, revealing some of the behind-the-scenes stories.
“I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like”
Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, Theatre Royal Bath productions presents this new stage adaptation of her famous comedy of manners, Emma.
The beautiful, high-spirited Emma Woodhouse is determined that she will never marry but loves to meddle in her friends’ and neighbours’ relationships. When her confidante and former governess, Miss Taylor weds her fiancé Mr Weston, Emma, having introduced the couple, takes credit for the marriage and decides that a future in matchmaking lies ahead of her.
So begins a comic journey through the lives and loves of Emma’s friends and neighbours, embracing the burgeoning Regency social scene of Bath and Weymouth. But as the romantic web she weaves amongst her friends becomes ever more entangled, will Emma herself get swept up in true love’s wake …?
Jane Austen’s enduring novel is filled with memorable characters - the dashing Mr Knightley, Emma’s friends Jane Fairfax and Harriet Smith, the mercenary Reverend Elton and his delightfully pretentious wife Augusta. This new stage production is adapted by Ryan Craig. The cast includes rising star India Shaw-Smith, soon to be seen on TV in Spartacus: House of Usher, as Emma, with William Chubb, Oscar Batterham, Daniel Rainford and Peter Losasso.
Malvern Theatres in Association with the A.E Housman and Ivor Gurney Societies present
An English Song Recital
Alessandro Fisher (tenor) and Ashok Gupta (piano)
BBC New Generation artist, Alessandro Fisher, and award-winning pianist Ashok Gupta present an English Song recital themed around settings of the poetry of A.E Housman and Ivor Gurney. Their recital programme will include popular as well as lesser-known songs by Vaughan Williams, Butterworth, Quilter, Finzi, and Gurney. It will also feature the Finzi Friends and A.E Housman Societies jointly commissioned 2004 song cycle, ‘Songs of Eternity and Sorrow’ by Worcestershire composer Ian Venables. The composer will give a preconcert talk about setting Housman’s poetry to music.
Programme to include:
Gurney - On Wenlock Edge
Butterworth - Loveliest of Trees
Gurney - In Flanders
Quilter - Go, Lovely Rose
Finzi - Only the Wanderer
Venables - Songs of Eternity and Sorrow (words by A.E. Housman)
Ireland - We’ll to the Woods No more Vaughan Williams - Songs of Travel
Venables - The Pine Boughs Past music (words by Ivor Gurney)
Sun 12th Oct 3pm Christ Church, Malvern £14 (Unreserved) Pre-concert talk with Ian Venables at 2pm Price includes 12% booking fee
Directed by Lynne Lindner accompanied by Tim Sidford (piano) and Anwen Mai Thomas (harp)
Named after the renowned ‘Swedish Nightingale’ Jenny Lind, who lived in Malvern for the latter part of her life and who was a wellknown benefactor of education and the arts, the Jenny Lind Singers are a local all-female choir. Each year they present several concerts in which they explore new music, especially by women and local composers including, for this concert, works by Liz Dilnot Johnson and Kate Hill.
Programme to include:
Hildegard of Bingen: O virtus Sapientie
Carol Jones: All shall be well
Rebecca Clarke: Ave Maria
Liz Dilnot Johnson: Lighten our Darkness and Sanctus
Kate Hill: A Mother’s Farewell
Catrin Finch: Pictures
Roxanna Panufnik: Ubi Caritas
Elizabeth Poston: An English Day-Book
Sarah Quartel: Songbird
Liz Dilnot Johnson: ‘Nimrod’ Reimagined
ALIM BEISEMBAYEV
“There’s no pianist under 30 in the world I would rather hear”
DAILY TELEGRAPH
Debussy Images Book 1
Chopin
Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor Op. 35
Debussy Images Book 2
Chopin
24 Preludes Op. 28
A current BBC New Generation Artist, Alim Beisembayev won First Prize at The Leeds International Piano Competition in September 2021. He famously made his BBC Proms debut with the Sinfonia of London and John Wilson at just two days’ notice, playing Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto in a concert that brought him to international attention.
Fri 17th Oct 7.30pm Big School, Malvern College
£15 (Unreserved)
Price includes 12% booking fee
CHACONNE!
ARMONICO CONSORT & BAROQUE PLAYERS
SOPRANO HANNAH FRASER MACKENZIE COUNTERTENOR WILLIAM TOWERS
DIRECTED FROM THE HARPSICHORD BY CHRISTOPHER MONKS
The ground bass has been a fundamental of music for centuries and has not only given rise to some of the greatest and most popular works ever written such as Pachelbel’s Canon, but also to rarely performed gems such as ‘Che si puo Fare’ by Venetian composer Barbara Strozzi. This concert, for small instrumental ensemble and two of Armonico Consort’s soloists, both well-known to Malvern audiences, celebrates the extraordinary versatility of this simple but incredible musical force …
Pachelbel: Canon and Gigue
Purcell: Chaconne in G minor
Purcell: Chaconne from The Fairy Queen
Monteverdi: Pur Ti Miro & Zefiro Torna
Purcell: Dido’s Lament
Strozzi: Che si puo fare
JS Bach: Den Tod (from BWV 4) & Wir Eilen (from BWV 78)
Sat 18th Oct 5.15pm Forum Theatre £19
Free Pre-Show Talk at 4pm in Studio One with Christopher Monks, Hannah Fraser Mackenzie and William Towers Price includes 12% booking fee
Songs of Farewell
Music by Parry, Stanford and Elgar
Conducted by Piers Maxim
With Chris Allsop (Organ) and Martin Robson (Baritone)
Under the leadership of the founder and first Musical Director, Dr Donald Hunt, the Elgar Chorale gained a reputation for the quality and variety of its performances. It is particularly noted for its interpretations of music Sir Edward Elgar. Since January 2015 the choir has been under the directorship of Piers Maxim. He is currently Organist and Director of Music of Great Malvern Priory and Conductor of EC4 Orchestra based in London.
Programme to include:
Elgar: Give unto the Lord
Parry: Songs of Farewell (a selection)
Stanford: Toccata for Organ in D minor
Elgar: O hearken Thou & So many true princesses
Stanford: At the Abbey Gate Op.177 (arr. P.Maxim )
Stanford: Three Motets Op.38
Parry: Chorale Prelude on “St Anne”
Parry: Blest pair of Sirens - Parry
Sat 18th Oct 7.30pm Great Malvern Priory £12.50 (Unreserved)
The Gildas Quartet
The Gildas Quartet, praised for their ‘energy, verve and refreshing approach’ have performed to critical acclaim at major venues including the Bridgewater Hall, Barbican, Wigmore Hall and live on BBC Radio 3. Their bold and explorative approach to performance has been widely recognised, as has their determination to bring the visceral experience of string quartet performance to audiences. In Malvern, they perform the fifth quartet from Haydn’s Op.76 set and the third quartet from Beethoven’s Op.59 set, both works justly celebrated particularly for their slow movements. The concert ends with Britten’s third quartet, written in October and November 1975 and the last major work that the composer completed.
Haydn – String Quartet in D Major Op. 76 No.5
Beethoven – String Quartet in C Major Op 59 No. 3 ‘Razumovsky’ Britten – String Quartet No. 3
Sun 19th Oct 3pm Big School, Malvern College £12.50 (Unreserved) Price includes 12% booking fee
