Roderick Williams performs Gurney's 'The Western Playland': and works by Parry, Holst, Finzi, Stanford and Delius with the Bridge Quartet at St Mary's Church, Horsham on Monday 31st May 2021

Please note: This concert is in the past and has already taken place.

Roderick Williams performs Gurney's 'The Western Playland'

and works by Parry, Holst, Finzi, Stanford and Delius with the Bridge Quartet

Part of the English Music Festival - 2021

Add to my Calendar 31-05-2021 14:30 31-05-2021 16:30 36 Roderick Williams performs Gurney's 'The Western Playland' The annual English Music Festival celebrates the brilliance, innovation, beauty and rich musical heritage of Britain with a strong focus on unearthing overlooked or forgotten masterpieces of the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. The Festival is bringing its main four-day event - now in its fourteenth year - to the Sussex town over the late May Bank Holiday weekend, from 28th to 31st May. Concerts run throughout the weekend, and take place in St Mary’s Church, Causeway and in the historic 1920s Drill Hall, just 5 minutes’ walk away. Launching the Festival will be Midlands-based Orchestra of the Swan, under their conductor David le Page, who will also be the soloist in Vaughan Williams’s rarely heard Violin Concerto, the Concerto Accademico. The programme also includes sparkling string works by Peter Warlock, Walter Leigh, Gustav Holst, and John Ireland, who for many years lived in a windmill a short distance from Horsham. On Bank Holiday Monday internationally-renowned baritone, Roderick Williams, along with the Bridge Quartet and pianist Michael Dussek, will perform Ivor Gurney’s rarely-heard The Western Playland, which sets words by A. E. Housman.  The work has been recently recorded on the Festival’s acclaimed recording label, EM Records and the album, entitled Those Blue Remembered Hills (EMRCD065), will be receiving a formal launch at a reception in the Drill Hall following the concert, when the performers will discuss the music and recording.  The recital will also feature Roderick Williams singing Finzi’s Thomas Hardy song-cycle I said to Love, and songs by Parry and Stanford, while the Bridge Quartet will also perform music by Holst, Parry and Delius. Enthusiasts of English song will be well-provided for when Lucy Stevens and Elizabeth Marcus perform a selection of Shakespeare songs set by fourteen composers over four centuries, interwoven with poetry from his plays and sonnets. The Kathleen Ferrier Award prize-winning baritone, Gareth Brynmor-John, and pianist Christopher Glynn will also present a programme of songs, showcasing the miniature masterpieces of Peter Warlock, alongside those of his friends and contemporaries: Bax, Moeran and Delius. Violinist Rupert Marshall-Luck and pianist Duncan Honeybourne will be performing sonatas by Bliss, Howells, Delius and Ireland, alongside the World Première of a captivating piano piece by Edgar Bainton; and the Aurora Trio, formed by talented soloists Emma Halnan, Jordan Sian and Heather Wrighton, will perform works for flute, viola and harp by Arnold Bax, York Bowen, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Paul Lewis.  For the final concert of the Festival, we take a step back in time, with award-winning young group, Ensemble Hesperi, whose programme, directed from the harpsichord by Thomas Allery, will include Scottish Baroque music, famous for its catchy dance rhythms and infectious melodies, alongside lesser-known repertoire by composers of the North of England and the Midlands. Earlier in the weekend, the celebrated Armonico Consort, under their conductor Christopher Monks, will perform much-loved works by Handel and Purcell. In lighter vein, regular Festival favourites, the New Foxtrot Serenaders, perform effervescent works by Ivor Novello, Noel Coward, Flanagan and Allen, in their own engaging style; while pianist and well-known broadcaster, Paul Guinery, presents a selection of light music discoveries by Edward German, Billy Mayerl and Haydn Wood. Informative and entertaining talks, setting the composers and their music in context, will take place in the town’s Drill Hall with speakers including cellist Joseph Spooner, musicologist and conductor Dr Joseph Fort and composer Paul Lewis.  St Mary's Church, Horsham DD/MM/YYYY

Details

St Mary's Church
Causeway
Horsham
West Sussex
RH12 1HE
England

Monday 31st May 2021
2:30 PM

Programme

Charles Hubert Hastings Parry – A Welsh Lullaby 'Sleep Sleep'
Ivor Gurney – The Western Playland
Frederick Delius – String Quartet in E minor: III, Late Swallows
Gustav Holst – Phantasy Quartet on British Folk Songs, Op.36
Gerald Finzi – I said to Love, Op.19b

Performers

Roderick Williams – baritone
Michael Dussek – piano

Bridge Quartet

Programme Note

The annual English Music Festival celebrates the brilliance, innovation, beauty and rich musical heritage of Britain with a strong focus on unearthing overlooked or forgotten masterpieces of the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries.

The Festival is bringing its main four-day event - now in its fourteenth year - to the Sussex town over the late May Bank Holiday weekend, from 28th to 31st May. Concerts run throughout the weekend, and take place in St Mary’s Church, Causeway and in the historic 1920s Drill Hall, just 5 minutes’ walk away.

Launching the Festival will be Midlands-based Orchestra of the Swan, under their conductor David le Page, who will also be the soloist in Vaughan Williams’s rarely heard Violin Concerto, the Concerto Accademico. The programme also includes sparkling string works by Peter Warlock, Walter Leigh, Gustav Holst, and John Ireland, who for many years lived in a windmill a short distance from Horsham.

On Bank Holiday Monday internationally-renowned baritone, Roderick Williams, along with the Bridge Quartet and pianist Michael Dussek, will perform Ivor Gurney’s rarely-heard The Western Playland, which sets words by A. E. Housman. The work has been recently recorded on the Festival’s acclaimed recording label, EM Records and the album, entitled Those Blue Remembered Hills (EMRCD065), will be receiving a formal launch at a reception in the Drill Hall following the concert, when the performers will discuss the music and recording. The recital will also feature Roderick Williams singing Finzi’s Thomas Hardy song-cycle I said to Love, and songs by Parry and Stanford, while the Bridge Quartet will also perform music by Holst, Parry and Delius.

Enthusiasts of English song will be well-provided for when Lucy Stevens and Elizabeth Marcus perform a selection of Shakespeare songs set by fourteen composers over four centuries, interwoven with poetry from his plays and sonnets. The Kathleen Ferrier Award prize-winning baritone, Gareth Brynmor-John, and pianist Christopher Glynn will also present a programme of songs, showcasing the miniature masterpieces of Peter Warlock, alongside those of his friends and contemporaries: Bax, Moeran and Delius.

Violinist Rupert Marshall-Luck and pianist Duncan Honeybourne will be performing sonatas by Bliss, Howells, Delius and Ireland, alongside the World Première of a captivating piano piece by Edgar Bainton; and the Aurora Trio, formed by talented soloists Emma Halnan, Jordan Sian and Heather Wrighton, will perform works for flute, viola and harp by Arnold Bax, York Bowen, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Paul Lewis.

For the final concert of the Festival, we take a step back in time, with award-winning young group, Ensemble Hesperi, whose programme, directed from the harpsichord by Thomas Allery, will include Scottish Baroque music, famous for its catchy dance rhythms and infectious melodies, alongside lesser-known repertoire by composers of the North of England and the Midlands. Earlier in the weekend, the celebrated Armonico Consort, under their conductor Christopher Monks, will perform much-loved works by Handel and Purcell.

In lighter vein, regular Festival favourites, the New Foxtrot Serenaders, perform effervescent works by Ivor Novello, Noel Coward, Flanagan and Allen, in their own engaging style; while pianist and well-known broadcaster, Paul Guinery, presents a selection of light music discoveries by Edward German, Billy Mayerl and Haydn Wood.

Informative and entertaining talks, setting the composers and their music in context, will take place in the town’s Drill Hall with speakers including cellist Joseph Spooner, musicologist and conductor Dr Joseph Fort and composer Paul Lewis.

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