Welcome to the 2012 Three Choirs Festival at Hereford
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages ...
For many people, 2012 will be remembered as Olympics year.
In pondering how a classical music festival might reflect this
major national sporting event – the two not being perhaps the
most obvious of companions – it struck me that the Games are
a form of modern secular pilgrimage, and this idea provided me
with the starting point for this year's festival.
We are an island nation and our Olympic (and Three Choirs)
visitors will have to travel over or under the sea to reach us.
Maritime themes have always been important inspirations for
poets and composers and we present two settings of Whitman :
Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony and Delius’s Sea Drift.
Delius was born in 1862 and the orchestral concert combines
his Cello Concerto with La mer by Debussy, who was born
in the same year. Stravinsky's The Firebird and Ravel’s Boléro
complete this evening of musical fireworks.
The centrepiece of the programme is a rare performance of
Sir George Dyson's The Canterbury Pilgrims. Today, Dyson's
name may not be familiar to many outside the world of church
music, but in the mid twentieth century he was a highly
influential figure in the musical life of this country, and this
work, full of exciting choral writing and orchestral colour,
deserves to be far better known. I hope that this revival will
encourage a new look at this unjustly-neglected composer.
John Ireland died in 1962 and his London Overture will be
a marvellous opener for a programme which includes Elgar's
The Music Makers, first performed in 1912. Elgar championed
the works of the young Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and we mark
the centenary of his tragically early death with a performance
of his Clarinet Quintet and Petite Suite de Concert.
The Three Cathedral Choirs of Gloucester, Hereford and
Worcester are right at the heart of the festival, combining for
joint Evensongs and a performance of Bach’s St John Passion.
We are delighted to welcome once again the Philharmonia
Orchestra to the festival. Read more about the orchestra’s three year
residency at Three Choirs here.
The festival's vibrant tradition of commissioning and performing
new music continues, with world premieres by David
Briggs and Dobrinka Tabakova, and further performances of
new works by Judith Bingham and Joseph Phibbs.
We begin with Haydn's ever-popular The Creation, and end
– as the Olympics begin – with Berlioz’ dramatic Te Deum,
complete with its original ‘March for the Presentation of Flags’.
Here are some of the highlights of Hereford 2012, but there's
much, much more. However you're planning to get here, we
look forward to seeing you!
Geraint Bowen
Artistic director & festival conductor
