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A visit to the ancient town of Tetbury in the Cotswolds makes the perfect cultural weekend break. Supported by its Patron HRH The Prince of Wales, the Tetbury Music Festival is a local highlight as well as for those travelling from overseas to hear internationally acclaimed musicians in such a beautiful setting. Concerts range from early to classical to contemporary music, with lectures and interviews to share insight, understanding and new ways of appreciating the context in which these fine works were written.
- Date: 24 September – 2 October 2022
- Location: Tetbury Music Festival, St Marys’ Church, Church St, Tetbury, GL8 8JG
- Book Tickets at www.tetburymusicfestival.org
The 2022 festival includes performances from one of the world’s finest clarinettists Julian Bliss, alongside pianist Charles Owen, and the innovative saxophonist Manu Brazo with pianist Prajna Indrawati. Performing a programme of Haydn, Mozart and Mendelessohn will be the first period instrument quartet to be selected as BBC New Generation Artists, the talented young Consone String Quartet.
Leading Italian ensemble La Fonte Musica makes a much anticipated return to the UK, offering a programme of music by Guillame Dufay under the direction of Michele Pasotti. This performance marks a rare opportunity to enjoy a live UK performance from this world-class ensemble.
Closing the festival will be The Orchestra of St John’s conducted by John Lubbock, with a programme of Elgar, Mozart, Walton and Haydn.
In addition to the concert series, Tetbury Music Festival offers a selection of insightful lectures to guide the listener through each evening performance. This year, Tetbury welcomes esteemed author Sarah Dunant for a lecture on the rebirth of creativity in Renaissance Italy, which precedes La Fonte Musica’s exploration of Dufay in Italy. Later in the festival, Professor Natasha Loges explores the world of clarinet chamber music before Julian Bliss explores some of this stunning repertoire, and Brian David examines the relationships between Elgar, Mozart, Walton and Haydn, after which The Orchestra of St John’s perform some of these composers’ works.
Festival Programme
Saturday 24 September 7.00pm
The Goods Shed Arts Centre, Tetbury
Manu Brazo and Prajna Indrawati
Programme
Claude Debussy: Beau Soir
Ralph Martino: A Gershwin Fantasy
Ralph Vaughan Williams:
Six Studies in English Folk Song
Donato Lovreglio: La Traviata Fantasy
Manuel de Falla: Siete Canciones Populares
Eugene Bozza: Aria
Pedro Iturralde: Pequena Czardas
Thursday 29 September, 3.30m
The Goods Shed Arts Centre, Tetbury
Sarah Dunant
Grandeur and Intimacy: the rebirth of creativity in Renaissance Italy
Cultural commentator, broadcaster and writer Sarah Dunant is the author of five novels set in Renaissance Italy. Praised by the press for combining ‘flawless scholarship with beguiling storytelling’, she is a sought-after lecturer at home and abroad. In this lecture she will bring her characteristic insight to the new ways of thinking that sparked unprecedented innovation in art, music and science in 15th-century Europe, at the dawn of the Renaissance.
Thursday 29 September 7pm
St Marys’ Church, Tetbury
La Fonte Musica, directed by Michele Pasotti
Programme
Guillaume Dufay (1397–1474) was held in as high regard as Brunelleschi in architecture, Donatello in sculpture and Masaccio in painting. The Franco-Flemish composer imposed his graceful melodies onto the more complex textures of Italy and created a style that would influence composers far into the Renaissance Period. These graceful motets and chansons reflect the new clarity of line and quest for perfect proportion being sought in other artistic disciplines.
Friday 30 September 7pm
St Marys’ Church, Tetbury
The Consone String Quartet
Programme
Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in E Flat Opus 33 No 2 “The Joke”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: String Quartet No19 in C major “Dissonance”
Felix Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E Minor Opus 44 No 2
Saturday 1 October 3.30pm
The Goods Shed Arts Centre, Tetbury
Professor Natasha Loges
Like the human voice: the world of clarinet chamber music
We are delighted to welcome back Natasha Loges, Professor of Musicology at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, following her lieder lecture at the Festival in 2017. Her many books on the music of this period include Brahms and His Poets, Brahms in the Home and the Concert Hall, Brahms in Context, Musical Salon Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century and German Song Onstage.
Natasha broadcasts regularly and speaks at leading festivals and venues including the Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, the Oxford Lieder Festival, Leeds Lieder and Liedfestival Zeist.
Saturday 1 October 6.30pm
St Marys’ Church, Tetbury
Julian Bliss and Charles Owen
Programme
Robert Schumann: Adagio and Allegro, Opus 70
Tiberiu Olah: Sonata for Solo Clarinet
Carl Maria von Weber: Grand Duo Concertant in E Flat Opus 48
Claude Debussy: Première Rhapsodie
Johannes Brahms: Sonata No 1 in F minor
Sunday 2 October 3.30pm
The Goods Shed Arts Centre, Tetbury
Brian David
When Joseph met Wolfgang and Edward met William
Haydn and Mozart were close friends, whereas Elgar and Walton’s opinions of each other are open to interpretation. Brian David (our long-term programme-note writer) looks at the relationships between the four composers featured in the concert that follows. He reveals Haydn’s hidden tribute to Mozart on his younger colleague’s early death, and proposes a solution to Elgar’s famous ‘Enigma’ that involves Haydn, a composer Elgar greatly admired.
Sunday 2 October 5pm
St Marys’ Church, Tetbury
The Orchestra of St John’s conducted by John Lubbock
Programme
Edward Elgar: Serenade for Strings 1892
W A Mozart: Oboe Concerto in C major K 314
William Walton: 2 Pieces from Henry V
Joseph Haydn: Symphony No 44 in E minor Hoboken I/44
About Tetbury Music Festival
Tetbury Music Festival was founded in 2003 by Graham Kean, the Director of Music at St Marys’ Church and Elise Smith OBE, a life-long supporter and Patron of the Arts. Acclaimed ‘cellist Steven Isserlis was the first Artistic Director; conductor and ‘cellist Jonathan Cohen has been Artistic Director since 2013. His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales is the Festival’s patron. The Festival is run by a volunteer Board of music lovers and Festival supporters with a wide range of skills from marketing to finance to design.
The majority of concerts take place in the beautiful parish church of St Marys’ although the Festival includes other venues from time to time. An exceptionally fine example of early Georgian Gothic architecture, the Church has an acoustic to match which attracts musicians and audience alike. Several concerts have been recorded over the years for broadcast on BBC Radio 3, who collaborated with the Festival with a Spring series for recording and broadcast in 2019.
Over the years, the festival has welcomed some of the finest classical musicians to the heart of the Cotswolds. Previous performers include Felicity Lott, Thomas Allen, Ben Grosvenor, Pavel Kolesnikov, Angela Hewitt, Radu Lupu, Mark Padmore, The Sixteen, Sarah Connolly and Rachel Podger.
