Cheltenham Music Festival 2008

19 July – Cheltenham Music Festival 2008 is set to get underway once again this summer, with a line-up of 70 classical music concerts and events that will have fans and first-timers alike flocking to the spa town from all over the country. Don't miss SoGlos.com's highlights.

The 64th Cheltenham Music Festival gets underway on Friday 4 July, with a dazzling programme of live classical music spanning 800 years being held at venues including Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham Town Hall and Tewkesbury Abbey until Saturday 19 July 2008.

While organisers say there is no one over-riding theme of the festival this year, visitors should expect to hear a programme investigating the connection between classical music and folk in the summer’s concerts – as 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of Gloucestershire-born Vaughan Williams’ death. Holst, Grainger, Britten, Bartok, Kodaly and Lutoslawski also play a significant part in the line-up, while the city of Manchester, Messiaen and Maxwell Davies, not to mention the string chamber music of Schubert, all feature prominently.

With 70 events to choose from, connoisseurs of classical music are certainly spoilt for choice at the Cheltenham Music Festival 2008, our day-to-day highlights include:

Friday 4 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

Hear the BBC Philharmonic launch this year’s Music Festival with an opening night concert at Cheltenham Town Hall which will include Holst’s ‘The Planets’, Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’ and other music by Britten and Grainger. Starting at 7.30pm, tickets for this concert cost between £12 and £32.

Saturday 5 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

Trio Medieval will be playing an afternoon concert of sacred music from 13th and 14th century England, as well as folk songs from Norway, at All Saints Church in All Saints Road, Cheltenham. Starting at 12pm, tickets for this concert cost £15.

Sunday 6 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

More than 200 singers will be coming together for the Carmina Burana concert at Cheltenham Town Hall – including soprano Ailish Tynan, baritone Alan Opie, as well as the Cheltenham Festival Chorus, Gloucestershire County Junior Choir and Tewkesbury Youth Choir. Starting at 7pm, tickets for this concert cost between £10 and £25.

Monday 7 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

Bring a cushion or blanket to hear the From Spem To Et Exspecto concert at Tewkesbury Abbey where the back portion of seats will be removed to allow the audience to lie back and relax to the sounds of the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra playing this monumental work. Starting at 7.30pm, tickets cost between £5 and £25.

Tuesday 8 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

Be among the first audience in England to hear the premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies’ new sonata at Pittville Pump Room, when Ilya Gringolts performs on violin and Aleksander Madzar performs on piano in the concert which also includes Schumann, Bartok and Beethoven sonatas. Starting at 11am, ticket for this concert cost between £13 and £20.

Wednesday 9 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

There’s more Peter Maxwell Davies today in a concert featuring his ‘Eight Songs For A Mad King’ when Radio 3’s Discovering Music presents The Maxness of Kind George at Pittville Pump Room. Starting at 5pm, this event is free of charge, but tickets must be booked in advance.

Thursday 10 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

The Fascinating Aida trio are back to celebrate their 25 year anniversary with a cabaret concert at Pittville Pump Room. Expect plenty of fun and ‘maybe a few bum notes’ in the light-hearted performance which can be accompanied by a three-course dinner and wine too. Dinner starts at 7pm, with the concert starting at 9pm, with tickets costing between £13 and £60.

Friday 11 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

Catch the Kathryn Tickell Band at Cheltenham Town Hall, when you can hear one of the leading forces in contemporary British folk music play a concert of Northumbrian pipes, fiddles and melodeons. Starting at 8pm, tickets cost between £8 and £20.

Saturday 12 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

Former Cheltenham director Sir John Manduell’s connections with Manchester, where he was Principal of the Royal Northern College of Music, is marked by a performance by the Manchester Camerata at Cheltenham Town Hall where audiences can hear Vaughn William’s string ‘Fantasia’ played almost a century after its Gloucester Cathedral premiere. The concert starts at 7.30pm, with tickets costing between £8 and £25.

Sunday 13 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

Here’s your chance to hear talented local musicians in concert when the Gloucestershire Youth Orchestra give a performance of Dvorak, Bartok, Sibelius and Vaughn Williams at Pittville Pump Room guided by conductor Glyn Oxley. The concert starts at 4.30pm, with tickets costing £7.50.

Monday 14 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

Festival-goers will be able show their support for local musicians, when Cheltenham Bach Choir perform at Cheltenham Town Hall. Expect to hear a repertoire of folk-inspired music from both Britain and Hungary. The concert starts at 6.30pm, with tickets costing £10.

Tuesday 15 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

This is a chance for film buffs to catch a double bill at the University of Gloucestershire’s Pittville Campus at the Folk Fishing event, when Barrie Gavin’s The Noble Savage, about the eccentric musical genius Percy Grainger; and Bert, A Personal Memoir, which focuses on the journalist, whaler, singer and folk song collector Bert Lloyd take to the screen. The films start at 3pm, and although tickets are free they must be booked in advance.

Wednesday 16 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

The Pavel Haas Quartet return to the Cheltenham Music Festival once again this year, with a string concert of Janacek, Prokofiev and Schubert with cellist Danjulo Ishizaka at Pittville Pump Room. The concert starts at 11am with tickets costing between £11 and £18.

Thursday 17 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

Talented young tenor Allan Clayton will be performing alongside pianist Paul Lewis at today’s Pittville Pump Room concert entitled Die Schone Mullerin featuring Shubert’s song cycle sequences. The concert starts at 7.30pm with tickets costing between £15 and £25.

Friday 18 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

Quartet For The End of Time promises to be a powerful and rousing candlelit concert at Pittville Pump Room performed by four talented instrumentalists on the penultimate evening of the Music Festival. Composed by Messiaen when he was a prisoner of war in 1940, the premiere of this quartet piece was given to inmates in Gorlitz. Starting at 10pm, tickets for this concert cost between £10 and £16.

Saturday 19 July 2008 at Cheltenham Music Festival

The last but in no means least powerful performance at the Cheltenham Music Festival 2008 is by Romanian gypsy legends Taraf de Haidouks at Cheltenham Town Hall. A magical and uplifting mix of folk melodies which has made this group a big hit on the world music stage is promised, and as the event is standing only, don’t be surprised if you find yourself dancing along. Starting at 8pm, tickets for this concert cost £18 and are expected to sell-out.

This year’s festival director Meurig Bowen commented: ‘How potentially unappealing is that word ‘classical’? For too many it seems to imply something that’s a bit dried up, exclusive and unattainably complex – sounds dreamed up by dead people and residing in a musical museum. Yet every single note of every single concert in this Festival will, I hope, blow these notions apart – this same classical music is vibrant, welcoming, absorbing and very much alive.’

While dedicated fans of classical music across the UK will be snapping up tickets, for the unconvinced, we suggest giving one of Cheltenham Music Festival 2008’s concerts a first-time try for yourself – with folk, films, cabarets, discussions and even a few free events, as well as some of the most talented musicians in the world performing in Gloucestershire, you might uncover a hidden ‘classical’ fan hiding within.

Event: Cheltenham Music Festival 2008
Dates: Friday 4 to Saturday 19 July 2008
Times: Vary, according to specific concerts
Tickets: Vary in cost, and can be booked in advance by calling the Cheltenham Festivals box office on (01242) 227979.

SoGlos.com
28 June 2008