Little Missenden Festival 2008

2008 Festival summary  

This is a brief summary of the programme.  Click the event numbers to see details.  Click here for a simple listing.

• Gary Cooper will follow up last year's late Beethoven tour de force with a performance of the last three sonatas (opus 109, 110 and 111), a set of late Bagatelles and Liszt’s transcription of the slow movement from the 9th Symphony – all played on an 1835 Nanette Streicher piano. (Event 5)
• Pianist Rolf Hind has assembled an outstanding team of musicians to play Messiaen's timeless and moving Quartet for the End of Time, Bartok's Contrasts (written for Benny Goodman), a new work of his own, and a piano piece by George Benjamin. (Event 9)
• The Binchois Consort, whose recordings of Dufay and his contemporaries have won a clutch of awards and critical plaudits, will be singing a choice array of music by choral masters of the 15th and early 16th centuries – Obrecht, Willaert,  Compère, Brumel, Agricola, Mouton, and Isaac. (Event 1)
• The Allegri Quartet will play one of Beethoven's greatest works, the opus 131 quartet.  This is partnered by Robert Simpson's 2nd Quartet, inspired by Beethoven's late quartet writing.  Finally a first performance – we've commissioned Matthew Taylor (Simpson’s friend and pupil) to write his 6th quartet. (Event 6)
• Our celebration of Vaughan Williams on the 50th anniversary of his death will include:   
• On Wenlock Edge performed by rising young tenor Nathan Vale with Simon Crawford-Phillips and the Sacconi Quartet. They will also play RVW's 1st string quartet;  Gurney's beautiful Ludlow and Teme;  and Ian Venables's Songs of Eternity & Sorrow (settings of Housman inspired by the songs of Vaughan Williams, Gurney and Butterworth).  Please note that the tenor originally scheduled (Robert Murray) is not now able to appear, and Nathan Vale has stepped in as an extremely able replacement – he has just the right kind of voice, and is experienced in this repertoire. (Event 8)
• Tony Palmer's recent acclaimed RVW biopic, O Thou Transcendent. (Event 3)
• Pianist Mark Bebbington playing The Lake in the Mountains, alongside pieces by John Ireland, Howard Ferguson and Francis Pott. (Event 11)
• Gemma Rosefield (cello) and Nicola Eimer (piano) playing RVW's Folk Songs, with Shostakovich's magnificent D minor sonata, and pieces by James Francis Brown and Cecilia McDowall. (Event 12)
• Norma Winstone, one of the great voices in British jazz, will present her magical new collaboration with German reeds player Klaus Gesing and Italian pianist Glauco Venier. She’ll be the first vocalist to feature in a Little Missenden jazz gig. (Event 14)
• Savadi, two sopranos and a harpist, gave a bewitching performance of Italian Renaissance music at the 2006 Festival.  They will be coming again in 2008 with Fabellae, another superb programme of early 17th century Italian songs by Carissimi, Strozzi, d'India and others. (Event 15)
• Art lecture by Catherine Reynolds on The faces of Renaissance Children, relating to the National Gallery's major autumn exhibition. (Event 4)
• The Askew Sisters are a vibrant young duo who have been making big waves in folk clubs and festivals with their traditionally-based music for fiddle, melodeon and vocals. They play and sing with infectious enjoyment and rhythms that make you want to stamp your feet. (Event 7)
• Poetry:  After last year's successful Auden lecture by John Fuller, Ted Hughes’s friend Nick Gammage will be reading and discussing some of the great poet’s work for children. (Event 13)
• Children's Concert:  Post-graduate Guildhall students will lead interactive workshop performances of music on themes involving animals and insects.  Children will be able both to listen and to take part. (Event 10)
• Schools concert:  Janet Davey will be continuing her series of Festival workshops in three local infants schools, who will each have a Festival concert to present their work. (Event 2)

Little Missenden Festival 2008