BREMF enters its fifteenth year and this year’s programme is
as eclectic and diverse as ever. As well
as over fifteen events in the main festival (28 October – 13 November), there are also nine pre-festival
events, including workshops, masterclasses, talks, tasters, and even a concert
specifically targeted at 2-5 year olds. So as well as hearing great
performances from top class early music musicians, you can take part too.
This year’s theme is Nature
and Science, and events look the interconnections between these, and how
they run closely with the history of music.
So the festival looks at the lives of some well-known and lesser-known
scientists, musicians, philosophers and thinkers, as well as exploring the
influence of science and nature on music and composers in new and imaginative
ways.
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| The Marian Consort |
Co-director Clare Norburn has written another music drama, following on the success of
previous projects about the lives of Gesualdo, Hildegard of Bingen and others,
this time turning her attention to Galileo. As well as being a famous astronomer,
physicist & philosopher, he had a passion for music, and music played a
huge part in his family life, as well as in his understanding of practical
experiments. Music is performed by The Marian Consort and the Monteverdi String Band.
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English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble
(credit: Hugh Beauchamp) |
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The Telling
(© Robert Piwko) |
Other events include L’Avventura London exploring the little-known 17th century musician,
alchemist & polymath Athanasius
Kirchner, the viol consort Fretwork
performing Bach’s The Art of Fugue, and The Telling perform The Lily
and the Rose, a programme of music from the 12th to 15th
centuries inspired by these flowers, and their association with the Virgin
Mary. For ‘Fairest Isle and Foulest Weather’, a programme of music from The
Tempest by Matthew Locke and King Arthur by Henry Purcell, the BREMF Players and BREMF Singers are directed by John Hancorn.
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| Palisander |
Spiritato!
present ‘Guts and Glory!’, with
heroic music for strings, five natural trumpets and drums, baroque brass at its
dazzling best. And in a brand new family
show, the recorder consort Palisander,
a hit at last year’s festival, combine with puppets from Rust and Stardust to present Dr
Dee’s Daughter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Details of all these concerts and more, as well as all the
pre-festival events in September and October, can be found at www.bremf.org.uk or telephone 01273
709709. Tickets on sale from 5
September.
