The Three Choirs Festival, which can trace its origins back
to the early eighteenth century, is probably the oldest musical
festival in the world. Each summer the festival rotates between
the cathedral cities of Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester.
This year it’s Hereford’s turn to host the festival, which runs
from 4 to 11 August, though the major musical events don’t start
until Sunday 6 August.
2006 is a year that’s particularly rich in anniversaries and
Geraint Bowen, the Director of Music of Hereford Cathedral and
therefore the Director of this festival, would have been less
than human if he hadn’t picked up on some of these themes. Thus
his programmes mark both the 250th anniversary of the birth
of Mozart and also the centenary of the birth of Shostakovich.
Nearer home, as it were, he’s also celebrating the fiftieth
anniversary of the death of Gerald Finzi with performances of
several of his works, including what is arguably Finzi’s masterpiece,
Dies natalis.
But it’s another centenary, and one even closer to Three Choirs
hearts, as it were, that will be marked on the opening night
of the festival (6 August). The year 1906 saw the première
of Elgar’s last oratorio, Kingdom. The work received
its Three Choirs première the very next year, at Gloucester,
since when it’s been performed at some twenty subsequent Three
Choirs Festivals. This centenary performance will be conducted
by Geraint Bowen and the solo quartet will include soprano Judith
Howarth, who will have the glorious aria ‘The sun goeth down’
to sing, and, in the crucial part of St. Peter, baritone Roderick
Williams; a prospect to savour. The Festival Chorus will be
involved, of course, and the orchestra will be the Philharmonia,
in residence for the whole week to play at the major concerts.
Some eminent judges, including Sir Adrian Boult, have rated
Kingdom even more highly than Gerontius and, much
though I love Gerontius, I’d place myself in the Kingdom
camp too. It’s a wonderful work and it should sound marvellous
in Hereford Cathedral.
The following night the cathedral is the venue for a concert
that included two fine but all-too-rarely heard pieces. Kodály’s
exciting Budvari Te Deum will open the concert, followed
by John McCabe’s ravishing Notturni ed Alba. Schubert’s
great Mass in A flat completes the programme, which the
Worcester Cathedral Director of Music, Adrian Lucas, will conduct.
Richard Hickox, a regular guest conductor at the Three Choirs,
will be in charge for the next two evenings in the cathedral.
With typical enterprise he’ll direct a rare performance of Schumann’s
oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri (8 August) with a
strong team of soloists including Joan Rodgers (soprano), James
Gilchrist (tenor) and Roderick Williams. The following night
Hickox demonstrates his affinity with English music by directing
Vaughan Williams’s miraculous Fifth symphony and Steven
Isserlis will play Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto.
Potentially one of the most exciting events is the UK première
of a new work by James MacMillan (10 August). Sun-Dogs
is a co-commission by the Festival and the composer will conduct.
The Festival prospectus doesn’t give any more information but
it appears from the Boosey and Hawkes website
that the work is a twenty-minute setting for unaccompanied chorus.
Hereford will be hearing it hot off the press, as it were, for
the world première is due to take place only on 6 August,
in Bloomington, Indiana. MacMillan is one of the finest and
most eloquent of contemporary composers. I don’t expect that
Sun-Dogs will be an easy listen but any new work by him
is an event, for his music always has much to say. Sun-Dogs
will be included in a programme of music by Vaughan Williams
and Finzi. One of the Finzi works will be the afore-mentioned
Dies natalis in which the soloists will be that fine
tenor, James Gilchrist.
Space only allows a brief mention of the closing concert (11
August), which is sure to be a spectacular event with Walton’s
Belshazzar’s Feast to bring down the curtain on the 2006
Festival.
But there’s much more to the Three Choirs Festivals than the
showpiece evening concerts. For one thing there's the daily
Choral Evensong services, sung by the choirs of the three cathedrals.
These offer a feast of church music in the context for which
the music was written. More than that, these services offer
an oasis of calm and refreshment away from the inevitable hurly-burly
of the concerts and other events. Small wonder that the services
are usually well attended.
Chamber music aficionados will be well served. There are recitals
by the Brodsky Quartet (8 August), by pianist Andreas Haefliger
(9 August) and an enticing opportunity to hear James Oxley (tenor)
and Roderick Williams in a joint song recital (11 August)
I’ve neglected to mention so far the observances of the Mozart
250th anniversary. His music crops up in several programmes
throughout the festival and one afternoon orchestral concert
is given over entirely to his music. Geraint Bowen directs the
40th Symphony and the Requiem (9 August).
Finally, an opportunity to hear some outstanding young musicians
comes on 10 August when Owain Arwel Hughes conducts the National
Youth Orchestra of Wales in a morning concert devoted to Mahler’s
Fifth symphony.
So, with a programme liberally spiced with talks and concerts
to suit a wide variety of tastes and all taking place in the
lovely city of Hereford with the beautiful Herefordshire countryside
within easy reach what more enticing prospect could there be
for a week in August? Enjoy!
Full details of the Festival are available at http://www.3choirs.org/
Bookings can be made either online or by contacting the Box
Office at 1A, Cathedral Close, Hereford, HR1 2NG, United Kingdom.
Telephone 01432 275932
John Quinn
