Lewes Chamber Festival 2015

Now in its fourth year, the Lewes Chamber Music Festival has quickly gained a reputation for delivering exciting performances by some of the UK’s leading musicians, giving audiences the chance to discover new and less well-known works, alongside much-loved chamber pieces, all set within intimate venues around Lewes.

Beatrice Philips, Artistic Director

The Festival’s Artistic Director, Beatrice Philips, has this year pulled off quite a coup in attracting the world-renowned countertenor Iestyn Davies, who will be performing Elizabethan songs with Thomas Dunford (whom BBC Music Magazine dubbed 'the Eric Clapton of the Lute'). Davies’ rare appearance in a church venue in Lewes comes between international performances and his headline appearance at the upcoming Glyndebourne season.

Iestyn Davies

The Festival also features for the first time the London Haydn Quartet, one of the world’s leading period instrument string quartets. Other newcomers include brilliant young pianist Mishka Momen, and Swedish concert pianist Bengt Forsberg. Making a welcome returning to the festival are violinists Catherine Manson, Michael Gurevich, Tim Crawford and Tom Hankey; violists James Boyd and Timothy Ridout; cellists Philip Higham and Hannah Sloane; and pianist Tom Poster.

The London Haydn Quartet

The 2015 weekend festival of eight concerts – spread over mornings, lunchtimes, evenings and late night - is themed around the chamber music of Haydn, set alongside later composers such as Beethoven, Britten and Schoenberg. This year’s programme also features two living composers, Melanie Daiken, who studied with composer Olivier Messaein in Paris, and the award-winning Edmund Finnis.

Signalling its growing importance, the Lewes Chamber Music Festival has this year attracted the support of the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust, which helps young people attend world-class chamber music. Their support makes tickets to most of the concerts completely free for those under 26 years old.

The Festival also continues to mix professional musicians of international repute with those at the start of their career – this year bringing younger students from Music Works, who are tutored by musicians featured in the Festival, performing the demanding Schoenberg Quartet No 1.

To complement these performances, musician-turned-chef Sheba Anvari from Local Sauce is providing a delicious two-course meal as part of the opening night celebrations for the late night concert.

The Festival’s Artistic Director, Beatrice Philips, said: 

'I am proud that our Festival offers audiences the rare opportunity to hear both much-loved and also more unusual music performed at such a high level outside the big venues in the UK. The intimate festival atmosphere makes it an unmissable weekend of concerts for music-lovers.'

'This year, I have focused the Festival on the music of Joseph Haydn and his extraordinary output of chamber music. By putting Haydn's music in almost all of the concerts, and alongside Schumann, Beethoven (early and late), Tchaikovsky, Britten and even Schoenberg - we see just how varied, versatile and relevant his music is. Hearing this music played on period instruments by the London Haydn Quartet should be quite a revelation to audiences.'

'I am also thrilled to be welcoming Iestyn Davies and Thomas Dunford to perform a programme entitled 'The Art of Melancholy' at All Saints Centre late on Saturday night.  Iestyn is singing at Glyndebourne this summer, and so the chance for a local audience to also hear him in such an intimate setting is quite special.'

'All in all a fantastic line-up with amazing music and delicious food - and tickets for under 26 year-olds are free of charge thanks to our support from the Cavatina trust.'

Tickets cost just £12-£14, with an all-concert pass at less than £100, and can this year be bought online here, by email, by tel 01273 479865 or in person from Lewes Travel.

The main Festival venue will be the recently refurbished St John sub Castro church in Lewes, with additional concerts at the beautiful Westgate Chapel, and for the first time the All Saints Centre, plus one at the delightful St Peter's Church in the nearby village of Firle.

Friday 12th June

Bengt Forsberg

Opening Concert - St John sub Castro, 6.30pm

Tickets include a glass of wine

Haydn Piano Trio in D minor, Hob.XV:23, No. 37

Bengt Forsberg (piano) 

Catherine Manson (violin) 

Hannah Sloane (cello)

Tchaikovsky String Quartet in F, No. 2

Michael Gurevich and Beatrice Philips (violins)

Tim Ridout (viola) 

Pierre Doumenge (cello)

Schumann Studies in Canon Form, Op. 56

Tom Hankey (violin) 

Philip Higham (cello) 

Bengt Forsberg (piano) 

Beethoven Piano Trio in G major, Op. 1 No. 2

Tim Crawford (violin) 

Philip Highham (cello) 

Mishka Momen (piano) 

Timothy Ridout

Late Night Supper Concert - Westgate Chapel, 10pm

Supper served from 8.45pm

Sergei Taneyev String Quintet in C No .2, Op. 16

Tim Crawford and Beatrice Philips (violins) 

James Boyd and Timothy Ridout (violas) 

Hannah Sloane (cello).

Saturday 13th June

Firle Concert - St Peter’s, Firle, 11.30am

Coffee free from 10.30am

Haydn Duo for Violin and Viola in F
Edmund Finnis Brother for Violin and Viola
Beethoven String Quintet in C major, Op. 29 

Catherine Manson, Beatrice Philips and Tim Crawford (violins)

Tom Hankey & Timothy Ridout (violas) 

Hannah Sloane (cello).

London Haydn Quartet – Evening Concert - St John sub Castro, 6pm

Tickets include a glass of wine

Haydn Piano Trio in B flat major, Hob.XV:20, No. 34
Haydn String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 55 No. 3
Beethoven String Quartet in F major, Op. 135 

Thomas Dunford

Elizabethan Songs – Late Night Concert – All Saints Centre, 9.45pm

Tickets for this recital include a glass of wine before the performance.

Iestyn Davies (countertenor) 

Thomas Dunford (lute) 

(Please note this concert is not part of the Cavatina free U26s ticket scheme.)

Sunday 14th June

Philip Higham

Coffee Concert – All Saints Centre, 11am

Free coffee from 10.30 am

Haydn String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 9 No. 2
Britten Cello Suite No. 2, Op. 80

Beatrice Philips and Tim Crawford (violins)

Timothy Ridout (viola)

Philip Higham and Hannah Sloane (cellos).

Mishka Momen

Afternoon Concert – All Saints Centre, 2.30pm

Haydn Piano Trio in E flat major, Hob.XV:22, No. 36
Melanie Daiken Sonata for Viola and Piano
Schoenberg String Quartet No. 1

James Boyd (viola)

Mishka Momen (piano) 

Students from Music Works chamber courses

Catherine Manson (violin).

Finale – St John sub Castro, 7pm

CPE Bach Quartet for piano and strings in D major, WQ94
Catoire Piano Quintet in G, Op. 28
Schumann Waldszenen, Op. 82
Schumann Piano Quartet in E flat, Op. 47

Bengt Forsberg, Mishka Momen & Tom Poster (piano)

Michael Gurevich, Tom Hankey, Beatrice Philips (violins) 

Timothy Ridout & James Boyd (viola)

Pierre Doumenge (cello).

Cipriano de Rore (1515/6-1565) - A Double Anniversary Celebration in Brighton

A miniature of Cipriano de Rore by Hans Müelich, probably 1558 or 1559

Brighton Early Music Festival present two concerts to celebrate the double anniversary of the composer Cipriano de Rore - possibly the 500th anniversary of his birth, as well as the 550th anniversary of his death.

Both concerts are at St Paul's Church, West Street, Brighton.

Saturday 6 June, 6pm

Rore dedicated his Missa Praeter rerum seriem to Duke Ercole II of Ferrara (pictured here as Hercules).  The concert will also include motets by Rore and Gregorian chant for the feast of Corpus Christi.

BREMF Consort of Voices
Deborah Roberts - Director

Saturday 13 June, 6pm

Vespers psalms and motets by Rore alongside other works which may have been composed by the nun Suor Leonora D’Este, daughter of Lucrezia Borgia and sister of Rore’s patron, Duke Ercole II of Ferrara.

Celestial Sirens
Deborah Roberts & Laurie Stras (Directors)
Claire Williams (organ)
Emily Ashton (viola da gamba)




Click here for more information and to book tickets for both concerts.

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CD Reviews - May 2015

The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, conducted by Daniel Hyde, have begun a recording relationship with the label Opus Arte, and two of their discs, of vastly different repertoire, are reviewed here.  Dieterich Buxtehude (c.1637-1707) was probably born in Helsingborg, then part of Denmark but now in Sweden, but later settled in Lübeck, Germany. He worked as an organist, but was widely respected as a composer, and was visited by Handel and Telemann, as well as J S Bach, who walked 200 miles from Armstadt to hear him play.  His Membra Jesu nostri is is a set of seven cantatas, each a meditation on a different part of Christ’s body on the cross. The cantatas all begin with a short instrumental sonata, and then Buxtehude bookends one or more solo arias setting parts of the Salva mundi text with repeated choral settings of various biblical texts.  Throughout, Buxtehude uses exquisite word painting to bring out the text. The arias, some solo and some for a trio of voices, all follow a similar pattern, with three sections set for different voices, over a repeated accompaniment, separated by an instrumental ritornello.  In this way, Buxtehude maintains a potentially constraining repeated format, whilst ensuring variety and scope for expressive exploration of the poetic text.  In this recording, most of the solo soprano arias are sung by several treble voices, and the other solo parts are taken by John Mark Ainsley (tenor), Robin Blaze (countertenor) and Giles Underwood (bass).  The piece would have been originally sung using boys voices, but I have to say I am more used to hearing it (and prefer it) with female voices.  Here, the choir sound best in the full choral sections, producing a strong blended sound.  But the individual or pared down treble voices sound too undernourished for me, with occasionally rather fragile tuning too. This creates an uneven balance with the excellent male soloists, particularly in the sequences of verse arias.  The small viol consort, Phantasm, are excellent throughout, perfectly underpinning the singing as well as providing contrast in the sonatas that begin each section.

Buxtehude, D. 2014. Membra Jesu nostri. John Mark Ainsley, Robin Blaze, Giles Underwood, Choir of Magdalen College Oxford, Phantasm, David Hyde. Compact Disc. Opus Arte  OA CD9023 D.

Matthew Martin (b.1976) won a British Composer Award for his anthem ‘In the year that King Uzziah died’, which is recorded on this disc, along with a selection of his choral compositions, many of these world premiere recordings.  Most of the music was written between 2011 and 2014, mostly commissions from cathedral and college choirs and festivals.  The style is clearly rooted in the Anglican cathedral tradition, and the choir here are thus in very comfortable territory.   As a result, this was a much more successful recording for me than their Buxtehude. Organist Stephen Farr gives able support throughout. The ‘Magnificat’ and ‘Nunc Dimittis’ written for The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge are dramatic settings, with striking bitonal harmonies between choir and organ.  In contrast, the brief, a capella ‘Justorum animae’, written to commemorate the death of a friend is simple yet touching, and the ethereal lines weaving between organ, choir and solo treble in ‘Dormi, Jesu!’, also written to mark the death of another friend, are equally affecting.  This may not be music to listen to a whole album of in one go, but as a record of this talented composer’s output the performances here are exemplary, and there are a number of works here that could and should be successfully performed in concert settings.

Martin, M. 2015. Jubilate Deo - Sacred Choral Works. Stephen Farr, Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, Daniel Hyde.

Hugo Stähle (1826-1848) died tragically young from meningitis, aged just twenty-one.  Consequently, despite apparently showing considerable talent and promise, there is little of his music published. His Piano Quartet, Op.1 remains, as do a symphony, one opera and some song cycles and piano pieces. He was a pupil of Louis Spohr, and friends with the composer Gade and the Schumanns. His music in this piano quartet has a definite Schubertian feel – there is nothing that one might call exceptional, but the lyrical and understated slow movement definitely has something original to say, and the finale has real energy in its playful rhythms.  The Mozart Klavierquartett are strong advocates for this undiscovered gem in their spirited performance here (a rereleased recording from 1988).  I was less convinced by their performance of Antonín Dvořák’s (1841-1904) Piano Quartet No. 1, Op. 23. The Czech inflections need much more bite, and the theme and variations that form the slow movement need greater passion.  Having said that, they steer a secure path through the range of musical ideas that Dvořák crammed into the finale, and bring the piece to a rousing conclusion. Overall, the Stähle is the work here that makes this recording a worthwhile purchase – for the Dvořák alone, there are many more worthy rivals out there.

Various. 1988. Hugo Stähle/Antonín Dvořák Piano Quartets. Mozart Klavierquartett. Compact Disc. MDG 615 0233-2.

(Edited versions of some of these reviews first appeared in GScene, May 2015)